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5.2.3,2.3 

LIBRARY  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 

PRINCETON,   N.  J. 

Presented  by 


THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 


THE  CREED 
OF  BUDDHA 


By  the  Author  of 
**  THE    CREED    OF  CHRIST" 

r  '^ 


NEW     YORK:     JOHN    LANE    COMPANY,     MDCCCCXI 
LONDON:    JOHN    LANE,     THE    BODLEY    HEAD 


!L_ 


Copyright,  1908 
JOHN  LANE  COMPANY 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAOa 

I.  East  and  West i 

II.  The  Wisdom  OF  THE  East 23 

III.  The  Path  OF  Life 48 

IV.  The  Teaching  of  Buddha 69 

V.  A  Misreading  of  Buddha 112 

VI.  The  Silence  OF  Buddha 154 

VII.  The  Secret  of  Buddha 180 

VIII.  The  Bankruptcy  of  Western  Thought..  232 

IX.  Light  from  the  East 264 


PREFACE 

AS  I  do  not  know  a  word  of  Pali  or 
any  other  Eastern*  language,  I 
owe  a  debt  of  gratitude  to  those 
distinguished  scholars  whose  trans- 
lations of  the  Buddhist  scriptures 
and  expositions  of  the  teaching  of  Buddhism 
have  made  it  possible  for  me  to  attempt  to  Inter- 
pret the  creed  of  Buddha.  If  I  have  found  their 
treatises  less  helpful  and  less  illuminative  than 
their  translations,  the  reason  is,  no  doubt,  that  the 
qualities  which  make  a  man  a  successful  scholar 
differ  widely  from  those  which  might  enable  him 
to  enter,  with  subtle  sympathy  and  Imaginative  in- 
sight, into  the  thoughts  of  a  great  Teacher.  That 
the  task  of  expounding  Buddhism  to  the  Western 
world  has  devolved  upon  a  small  group  of  lin- 
guistic experts  Is  due,  partly  to  the  obvious  fact 
that  these  experts  had  early  access  to,  and  for  a 
time  a  practical  monopoly  of,  the  available  ma- 
terials; partly  to  that  singular  lack  of  interest 
in  the  spiritual  life  and  thought  of  ancient  India 

♦Whenever  I  use  the  word  "East"  or  "Eastern,"  I  am 
thinking  of  the  Far  East,  i.e.  of  Eastern  Asia. 

vii 


viii  PREFACE 

which  Is  characteristic  of  Western  culture,  and 
which  predisposes  even  the  more  thoughtful  and 
enlightened  minds  to  accept,  with  indolent  acqui- 
escence, the  ideas  of  others  about  Indian  religion 
and  philosophy,  instead  of  trying  to  evolve  ideas 
for  themselves.  There  was  a  time  when  ignor- 
ance of  the  Pali  language  was  a  final  disqualifica- 
tion for  the  task  of  studying  the  philosophy  of 
Buddha.  But  it  is  so  no  longer.  For  the  dis- 
interested labours  of  the  scholar  have  provided 
the  "lay"  student  with  a  mass  of  materials  of 
which  he  may  be  able  to  make  a  profitable  use; 
and  one  who  feels  impelled,  as  I  have  done,  to 
fathom  the  deeper  meaning  of  Buddha's  wonder- 
ful scheme  of  life,  and  to  guess  the  secret  of  his 
mysterious  silence,  has  now  as  good  a  right  as 
any  Orientalist  to  attempt  the  solution  of  that 
fascinating  problem. 

That  the  problem  has  not  yet  been  even  ap- 
proximately solved  is  my  sincere  conviction.  I 
have  read  many  treatises  on  Buddhism;  but  I 
have  yet  to  find  the  writer  who,  when  expounding 
the  philosophy  (as  distinguished  from  the  ethical 
system)  of  Buddha,  teaches  "as  one  having  au- 
thority and  not  as  the  Scribes."  The  indisputable 
fact  that  Buddha  himself  kept  silence  with  regard 
to  the  ultimate  realities  and  ultimate  issues  of 
life,  shows  that  the  task  of  interpreting  his  creed 
is  one  for  "criticism"  (in  the  widest  and  deepest 
sense  of  the  word)  rather  than  for  "scholarship," 


PREFACE 


IX 


— for  judgment,  the  judgment  that  enables  a  man 
to  make  use  of  the  learning  of  others,  rather  than 
for  learning  as  such.  One  of  my  objects  In  writ- 
ing this  book  has  been  to  vindicate  the  right  of 
the  'layman"  to  explore  a  region  which  the  lin- 
guistic expert  has  hitherto  been  allowed  to  regard 
as  his  private  "preserve."  Should  any  other 
"layman"  feel  disposed  to  follow  my  example,  he 
may  start  on  his  enterprise  with  the  full  assur- 
ance that  the  field  before  him  Is  as  open  as  it  Is 
wide. 

One  or  two  words  of  warning  I  may  perhaps 
be  allowed  to  offer  him.  He  will  do  well  to  sug- 1--^ 
gest  to  himself  at  the  outset  that  the  Western  way 
of  looking  at  things  may  not  be  the  only  way 
which  Is  compatible  with  sanity,  that  the  Western 
standard  of  reality  may  not  be  the  final  standard, 
that  the  world  which. Is  encircled  by  the  horizon 
of  Western  thought  may  not  be  the  whole  Uni- 
verse. The  student  of  Buddhism  who  is  bound, 
hand  and  foot,  by  the  quasI-phllosophlcal  preju-  - 
dices  of  the  Western  mind,  will  be  unable  to  sur- 
vey his  subject  from  any  Eastern  standpoint,  or  to 
approach  It  along  the  line  of  Eastern  thought. 
This  fundamental  disability  will  be  fatal  to  his 
enterprise.  There  Is  a  special  reason  why  the 
student  of  Buddhism  should  be  able  (on  occa- 
sion) to  look  at  things  from  Eastern  standpoints, 
and  to  enter  with  sympathy  Into  Eastern  modes 
and  habits  of  thought.    The  teaching  of  Buddha 


X  PREFACE 

can  In  no  wise  be  dissociated  from  the  master 
current  of  ancient  Indian  thought.  The  domi- 
nant philosophy  of  Ancient  India  was  a  spiritual 
idealism  of  a  singularly  pure  and  exalted  type, 
which  found  its  truest  expression  in  those  Vedic 
treatises  known  as  the  Upanishads.  The  great 
teacher  is  always  a  reformer  as  well  as  an  inno- 
vator; and  his  work  is,  in  part  at  least,  an  at- 
tempt to  return  to  a  high  level  which  had  been 
won  and  then  lost.  Whether  Buddha  did  or  did 
not  lead  men  back  (by  a  path  of  his  own)  from 
the  comparatively  low  levels  of  ceremonialism 
and  asceticism  to  the  sublimely  high  level  of 
thought  and  aspiration  which  had  been  reached 
in  the  Upanishads  is,  perhaps,  an  open  question. 
But  that  he  had  been  deeply  influenced  by  the 
ideas  of  the  ancient  seers  can  scarcely  be  doubted; 
and  the  serious  and  sympathetic  study  of  their 
teaching  should  therefore  be  the  first  stage  In  the 
attempt  to  lift  the  veil  of  his  silence  and  Inter- 
pret his  unformulated  creed.  The  student  who 
has  gone  through  this  preliminary  process  of  Ini-) 
tiation  will  find  that  he  has  begun  to  fit  himself 
for  other  tasks  than  that  of  communing  with  the 
soul  of  Buddha :  and  he  will  also  find  that  those 
other  tasks  will  In  due  season  claim  his  devotion. 
/^When  he  has  solved  the  problem  of  the  Indebted- 
ness of  Buddha  to  the  philosophy  of  the  Upani- 
shads, he  will  be  confronted  by  another  problem 
which  for  us  of  the  West  is  of  even  greater  im- 


PREFACE 


XI 


portance,  the  problem  of  the  indebtedness  of 
Western  thought — of  Pythagoras,  of  Xeno- 
phanes  and  Parmenides,  of  Plato,  of  Plotinus, 
of  Christ  himself  and  those  who  caught  the 
spirit  of  his  teaching — to  the  same  sacred  source. 
That  problem,  too,  will  have  to  be  grappled 
with,  if  the  West  is  ever  to  discover  the  secret 
of  its  own  hidden  strength,  and  if  Christendom 
is  ever  to  understand  Christianity. 


The  Creed  of  Buddha 


Chapter    I 


EAST  AND  WEST 


THE  religions  of  the  civilised  world 
may  be  divided  into  two  great 
groups, — those  of  which  the  para- 
mount deity  is  the  Jewish  Jehovah, 
and  those  of  which  the  paramount 
deity  is  the  Indian  Brahma.  Jehovah  reigns, 
under  the  title  of  God  the  Father,  over  Europe 
and  the  continents  which  Europe  has  colonised; 
and,  under  the  title  of  Allah,  over  western  Asia 
and  northern  Africa.  Brahma  reigns  In  the  far 
East,  India  being  under  his  direct  rule,  while 
Indo-Chlna,  China,  and  Japan  belong  to  his 
''sphere  of  influence."  Even  In  India  he  re- 
ceives but  little  formal  recognition.  But  he  is 
content  that  this  should  be  so.  He  Is  content 
that  men  should  worship  other  gods  until  the 
time  comes  for  them  to  give  their  hearts  to 
him. 


2  THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

Between  these  two  worlds,  which  I  will  call — 
loosely  and  inaccurately — the  Western  and  the 
Eastern,  there  is  a  great  gulf  fixed,  a  gulf  which 
few  minds  can  pass  over  from  either  side.  This 
gulf  has  been  hollowed  out  by  the  erosive  action 
of  speculative  thought.  Western  thought,  which 
has  always  been  dominated  by  the  crude  philoso- 
phy of  the  "average  man,"  instinctively  takes  for 
granted  the  reality  of  outward  things.  Eastern 
thought,  which,  so  far  as  it  has  been  alive  and 
active,  has  been  mainly  esoteric,  instinctively 
takes  for  granted  the  reality  of  the  "soul,"  or  in- 
ward life.  Such  at  least  is  the  general  trend  of 
thought,  on  its  various  levels,  in  each  of  these 
dissevered  worlds. 

As  is  a  man's  conception  of  reality,  so  is  the 
God  whom  he  worships.  Jehovah,  the  God  of 
the  Western  world,  is  an  essentially  outward 
deity.  Debarred  by  its  instinctive  disbelief  in 
the  soul  from  seeking  for  God  in  the  world  with- 
in, constrained  by  the  same  cause  to  identify 
"Nature"  with  the  world  without,  the  Western 
mind  has  conceived  of  a  natural  order  of  things 
which  is  real  because  God  has  made  it  so,  and 
of  a  supernatural  order  of  things  which  is  the 
dwelling-place  of  God.  But  because  the  West- 
ern mind,  in  its  quest  of  reality,  must  needs 
look  outward,  this  supernatural  order  of  things 
is  conceived  of  as  a  glorified  and  etherealised 
replica  of  the  natural  order;  and  God,  though 


EAST  AND  WEST  3 

veiled  from  sight  by  a  cloud  of  splendour  and 
mystery,  is  made  in  the  image  of  man.  Thus  in 
the  Western  cosmology  there  are  two  worlds,  the 
natural  and  the  supernatural;  and  two  bases  of 
reality,  lifeless  matter  and  supernatural  will. 

In  the  East,  where  the  soul  is  the  supreme  and 
fundamental  reality,  the  identification  of  God 
with  the  world-soul,  or  soul  of  universal  Na- 
ture, is  the  outcome  of  a  movement  of  thought 
which  is  at  once  natural  and  logical.  This  di- 
vine soul  is  the  only  real  existence :  by  compari- 
son with  it  all  outward  things  are  shadows,  and 
all  inward  things,  so  far  as  they  hold  aloof  from 
the  all-embracing  consciousness,  are  dreams. 
Thus  in  the  Eastern  cosmology  there  is  one 
world,  and  one  centre  of  reality, — the  world  of 
our  experience  seen  as  it  really  Is,  seen  by  the 
soul,  which,  passing  Inward,  In  its  quest  of  abso- 
lute reality,  from  veil  to  veil,  and  gathering 
within  Itself  all  things  that  seem  to  bar  its  way, 
arrives  at  last  at  the  very  fountain  head  of  its 
being,  at  its  own  true  self. 

There  are  evils  Incidental  to  the  worship  of 
each  of  these  sovereign  deities.  The  despotism 
of  the  supernatural  God  tends  to  reduce  to  a 
minimum  the  spiritual  freedom  of  his  subjects. 
To  tell  men  In  precise  detail  what  they  are  to 
believe  and  what  they  are  to  do,  Is  to  prohibit 
(under  tremendous  penalties)    all  spiritual  ini- 


4         THE   CREED   OF  BUDDHA 

tktive,  and  to  pander  to  one  of  the  most  demor- 
alising of  all  human  weaknesses, — the  spiritual 
indolence  of  the  "average  man."     And  as  In 
the  higher  stages  of  soul-growth  freedom  is  not 
merely  one  of  the  first  conditions  of  life,  but 
Is  scarcely  to  be  distinguished  from  life  Itself, 
the  autocratic  restriction  of  the  spontaneous  en- 
ergies of  the  soul  by  codes  and  creeds,  by  scrip- 
tures and  churches,  must  needs  bear  deadly  fruit. 
In   the   present   condition   of   the    Mahometan 
world  we  see  what  devastation  can  be  wrought 
by  centuries  of  blind  devotion  to  the  Irresponsible 
Lord  of  Fate.     In  Christendom  the  character 
of    Jehovah    has    been    profoundly    modified 
(though  the  change  which  has  been  effected  Is 
as  yet  potential  rather  than  actual)   by  the  In- 
fluence of  the  Founder  of  Christianity,  whose 
Ideas,  whatever  may  have  been  the  history  of 
their  development  in  his  mind,  belong  in  their 
essence  to  the  creed  of  the  Far  East.    The  gos- 
pel of  spiritual  freedom  which  Christ  consist- 
ently preached  was  long  ignored  by  Christianity 
— so  potent  was  the  sway  of  Jehovah — and  has 
not  yet  been  consciously  accepted;  but  the  leaven 
of  Christ's  teaching  Is  nov/  producing  a  visible 
ferment,  and  the  struggle  of  the  European  mind 
for  freedom  bears  witness  to  the  efficacy  of  Its 
action.     Yet  even  In  the  development  of  that 
life-giving  and  soul-redeeming  struggle  one  can 
trace  the  baneful  Influence  of  the  commonplace 


EAST  AND  WEST  5 

and  unimaginative  philosophy  which  underlies 
the  worship  of  Jehovah.  The  deification  of  the 
Supernatural  too  often  ends,  as  it  always  be- 
gins, in  the  despiritualisation  of  Nature;  and  the 
rejection  by  progressive  thought  of  a  supernat- 
ural deity  prepares  the  way  for  the  conscious 
acceptance  of  a  materialistic  "theory  of  things." 
There  is  another  way  in  which  the  shadow  of 
the  Supernatural  tends  to  blight  human  life.  If 
freedom  Is  to  be  strangled,  love,  which  Is  the 
most  expansive  and  emancipative  of  all  forces, 
must  first  be  wounded  and-  disarmed.  Dogma- 
tism, Intolerance,  and  uncharltableness  are  by- 
products of  the  worship  of  Jehovah.  The  peo- 
ple or  the  church  which  believes  Itself  to  have 
received  a  supernatural  revelation,  naturally 
claims  to  have  exclusive  possession  of  ^^the 
truth,"  and  therefore  regards  all  who  are  be- 
yond the  pale  of  its  faith  as  either  outcasts  from 
God's  presence  or  rebels  against  his  will.  The 
attitude  of  the  Jew  towards  the  Gentile,  of  the 
Christian  towards  the  "Heathen,"  of  the  Ma- 
hometan towards  the  "Infidel,"  Is  an  attitude  of 
spiritual  intolerance  in  which  the  "believer"  re- 
produces towards  his  fellow  men  the  supposed  at- 
titude of  the  "jealous  God"  whom  he  worships 
towards  all  but  a  faithful  remnant  of  mankind. 
In  this  way  supernaturalism  tends  to  introduce 
hatred — the  most  anti-spiritual  of  all  passions — 
into  the  most  sacred  of  all  spheres.    The  history 


6  THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

of  the  Western  world,  since  It  accepted  Jehovah 
as  Its  Lord  and  Master,  has  been  In  the  main 
the  history  of  religious  persecutions  and  relig- 
ious wars;  and  men,  In  perfect  good  faith,  have 
proved  their  zeal  for  God  by  devoting  the  bod- 
ies of  their  fellow  men  to  the  flames,  and  their 
souls  to  the  torments  of  Hell. 

The  evils  to  which  the  worship  of  Brahma  Is 
exposed  are  of  an  entirely  different  order.  Of 
the  creed  of  him  who  gives  his  whole  heart  to 
the  all-embracing  Life  I  will  not  attempt  to 
speak.  Silence  Is  the  true  language  of  cosmic 
adoration;  and  It  Is  In  sympathetic  silence  that 
one  should  contemplate  so  pure  and  profound  a 
creed.  When  the  Western  mind  accuses  the 
Eastern  of  pantheism,  it  Instinctively  assumes 
that  the  Eastern  standpoint  is  the  same  as  Its 
own.  In  point  of  fact  the  "higher  pantheism" 
of  the  East  is  an  entirely  different  thing  from 
the  materialistic  pantheism  into  which  Western 
thought.  In  its  seasons  of  revolt  from  the  wor- 
ship of  a  supernatural  God,  Is  liable  to  relapse. 
The  only  fault  that  can  be  found  with  the  former 
is  that  very  few  persons  can  breathe  freely  on 
Its  exalted  heights.  To  give  his  heart  to  One 
who  is  not  merely  supremely  real  but  alone  real, 
and  who  is  therefore  in  very  truth  the  All  of 
Being,  ^'exceeds  man's  might."  For  all  but  a 
chosen  few  the  figure  of  Brahma  must  needs 
recede  into  the  dim  background.     As  it  recedes, 


EAST  AND  WEST  7 

lesser  Gods — some  beautiful,  some  terrible,  some 
loathsome,  some  grotesque — emerge  from  the 
darkness  and  claim  man's  homage.  The  further 
[t  recedes,  the  lowlier  are  the  Gods  that  man 
worships.  In  China  and  Japan,  where  faith  in 
the  individual  soul  is  strong  but  the  ''intuition  of 
totality"  is  weak,  Brahma  (or  his  equivalent) 
becomes  the  mere  shadow  of  a  shade,  and 
the  souls  that  are  worshipped  are  those  of 
departed  men.  Thus  the  creed  of  the  East 
tends  to  degenerate  either  into  polytheism, 
which  becomes  at  last  the  dead  worship  of  dead 
Gods,  or  Into  ancestor-worship,  which  is  indeed 
within  its  limits  a  living  faith  and  does  much 
for  the  stability  of  social  life,  but  which,  even  in 
its  most  exalted  moods,  can  present  no  higher 
ideal  than  that  of  patriotism  to  the  aspiring  souls 
of  its  votaries. 

From  the  uncharitableness  of  supernaturalism 
the  creed  of  the  East  is,  in  theory  at  least,  en- 
tirely free.  All  men,  without  exception,  are  near 
and  dear  to  the  Universal  Soul,  for  all  are  sparks 
from  its  central  fire.  More  than  that,  life  as 
such,  be  it  high  or  low,  is  sacred  because  of 
the  fountain  from  which  it  issues.  Not  religious 
toleration  only,  but  all-embracing  charity  Is  of 
the  very  essence  of  the  faith  that  directs  Itself 
towards  the  All.  One  needs  but  a  superficial 
acquaintance  with  the  sacred  writings  of  the 
East  to  convince  oneself  that,  unlike  his  West- 


8  THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

ern  rival,  Brahma  is  not,  In  any  sense  of  the 
word,  a  "jealous"  God.  Jehovah's  jealousy  of 
other  Gods  and  vindictiveness  towards  those 
who  worship  them  suggest  that  he  is  conscious 
of  his  own  limitations  and  is  not  secure  of  his 
position.  Brahma  knows  that  the  lesser  Gods 
whom  men  worship  are  his  Viceroys, — embodi- 
ments in  their  several  ways  of  the  ever-changing 
dream  of  him,  who  is  All  in  All,  which  possesses 
the  growing  soul  of  Humanity;  and,  far  from  re- 
senting the  worship  that  is  paid  to  them,  he 
accepts  it  as  meant  for  himself: — 

Nay,  and  of  hearts  which  follow  other  Gods 
In  simpler  faith,  their  prayers  arise  to  me, 
O  Kunti's  Son!  though  they  pray  wrongfully; 
For  I  am  the  Receiver  and  the  Lord 
Of  every  sacrifice.* 

Religions  have  indeed  been  persecuted  in  the 
East,  but  always  for  social  or  political  reasons. 
Of  Buddhism,  the  dominant  creed  of  the  East, 
one  may  say  more  than  this;  one  may  say  that 
it  has  never  persecuted,  that,  in  practice  as  well 
as  principle,  it  is  an  entirely  tolerant  creed. 
/Cr^  "Throughout  the  long  history  of  Buddhism," 
M'  says  Dr.  Rhys  Davids,  "...  the  Buddhists  have 

been  uniformly  tolerant;  and  have  appealed,  not 
to  the  sword,  but  to  intellectual  and  moral  sua- 
sion. We  have  not  a  single  instance,  throughout 
the  whole  period,  of  even  one  of  those  religious 

*"The  Song  Celestial,"  by  Sir  Edwin  Arnold. 


EAST  AND  WEST  9 

persecutions  which  loom  so  largely  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  Christian  church.  Peacefully  the 
Reformation  began;  and  in  peace,  so  far  as  its 
own  action  is  concerned,  the  Buddhist  church  has 
continued  till  to-day."  The  idea  of  torturing  a 
fellow-man  to  death  because  his  theology  hap- 
pens to  differ  from  one's  own,  is  wholly  alien 
from  the  Eastern  tone  and  temper  of  thought, 
as  alien  as  is  the  assumption  which  makes  relig- 
ious persecution  possible, — the  atheistical  as- 
sumption that  Divine  Truth  can  be  imprisoned  In 
a  form  of  words. 

Each  of  these  dominant  types  of  religion  has, 
as  might  be  expected,  its  own  psychology,  its 
own  eschatology,  and  its  own  moral  and  social 
life.  The  West  regards  the  soul  as  dependent 
on  the  body,  coming  into  being  with  the  lat- 
ter, growing  with  its  growth,  and  either  dy- 
ing at  its  death  or  surviving  it  by  the  grace  of 
the  Supernatural  God.  The  immediate  destiny 
of  the  departed  soul  is  a  matter  with  regard  to 
which  Western  theology  is,  speaking  generally, 
in  a  state  of  complete  bewilderment.  That  sur- 
vival Is  not  regarded  as  a  natural  process  is 
proved  by  the  fact  that,  both  in  Christendom 
and  In  Islam,  the  Immortality  to  which  the  be- 
liever Is  taught  to  look  forward  Is  supernatural 
and  quasi-material.  On  some  future  day  the 
outward   and   visible    world     (which     Western 


lo        THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

thought  Identifies  with  "Nature")  will  pass 
away,  and  a  supernatural  order  of  things,  also 
outward  and  visible,  will  take  Its  place.  The 
bodies  of  the  dead  will  then  be  raised  from  the 
grave,  and  their  souls,  which  meanwhile  have 
been  leading  a  dubious  twilight  kind  of  exist- 
ence, will  be  restored  to  them,  and  will  dwell 
In  them  for  ever,  either  in  the  light  of  God's  visi- 
ble presence  or  in  the  lurid  darkness  of  Hell. 
So  the  two  great  religions  which  sprang  from  the 
parent  stem  of  Judaism  have  authoritatively 
taught,  and  so  for  many  centuries  the  whole 
of  Christendom  and  the  whole  of  Islam  were 
content  to  believe.  Supernaturalism  is  now  being 
slowly  undermined;  but  wherever  belief  In  the 
Supernatural  is  dying,  belief  In  survival  Is  dying 
with  It.  Modern  scepticism,  which  Is  based,  like 
the  faith  that  It  repudiates,  on  an  Instinctive  be- 
lief In  the  reality  of  the  outward  world  and  an 
Instinctive  disbelief  in  the  reality  of  the  inward 
life,  sees  In  death  the  extinction  of  the  soul 
(which  Indeed  has  never  been  anything  but  a 
name)  as  well  as  the  dissolution  of  the  body. 

Morality  Is  a  function  of  many  variables,  of 
which  psychology  and  eschatology  are  perhaps 
the  most  Important.  The  Soul,  which  Is  at  once 
One  and  Many,  Is  the  real  bond  of  union  among 
men;  and  all  communal  sentiments,  such  as  at- 
tachment to  country,  clan,  or  family,  are  ulti- 
mately rooted  In  the  sense  of  oneness  in  and 


EAST  AND  WEST  ii 

through  the  Universal  Self.  The  Western  dis- 
belief in  the  reality  of  the  soul  has  hastened 
the  dissolution  of  communal  bonds  and  inter- 
ests, and  has  helped  to  bring  in,  perhaps  prema- 
turely, the  regime  of  individualism, — a  necessary 
stage  in  the  development  of  the  soul,  but  one  in 
which  selfishness  is  not  merely  permitted  but 
directly  fostered.  The  Western  belief  In  the 
reality  of  the  outward  world,  and  therefore  In 
the  Intrinsic  worth  of  outward  goods,  has  made 
the  struggle  for  wealth,  both  by  nations  and  In- 
dividuals, one  of  the  most  prominent  features  of 
Western  civilization.  Against  this  materialistic 
Individualism,  this  regime  of  ^'competitive  self- 
ishness," the  moral  precepts  of  the  founders  of 
Christianity  and  (In  a  lesser  degree)  of  Islam- 
ism  have  waged  an  honourable  warfare.  But  in 
this  struggle  they  have  found  the  eschatologlcal 
teaching  of  the  churches  a  hindrance  rather  than 
a  help.  The  idea  of  a  natural  connection  between 
this  life  and  the  after  life,  or  lives,  has  been 
almost  wholly  lost  sight  of  In  the  West.  A  me- 
chanical Interpretation  has  been  placed  upon  each 
of  the  rival  doctrines  of  salvation,  "faith"  having 
been  degraded  to  the  level  of  belief,  and  'Svorks" 
to  the  level  of  ceremonial  observance.  The  false 
dualism  (so  characteristic  of  Western  thought) 
which  divides  the  future  world  into  Heaven  and 
Hell,  has  borne  its  Inevitable  fruit.  However 
tamely  the  Western  mind  may  have  seemed  to 


12         THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

acquiesce  In  the  formal  conceptions  of  Infinite 
bliss  and  Infinite  misery,  it  has  never  failed  (at 
any  rate  in  more  recent  years)  to  rise  In  secret 
revolt  against  the  assumption  that  in  a  single 
brief  earth-life  either  extreme  can  fairly  be 
earned.  The  shadow  of  Hell  has  at  times  fallen 
heavily  on  human  life;  but  each  man  in  turn 
has  managed  to  persuade  himself  that  so  tre- 
mendous and  unjust  a  penalty  was  not  for  him. 
The  doctrine  of  eternal  punishment,  when  steadi- 
ly faced.  Is  so  Intolerable  as  to  become  at  last 
incredible;  and  as  there  are  no  intermediate 
states  between  Heaven  and  Hell  (Purgatory  be- 
ing merely  the  ante-room  of  the  halls  of  Heav- 
en), the  Instinctive  recoil  of  the  soul  from  the 
latter  throws  open  to  all  men  the  portals  of  the 
former.  The  average  man  of  to-day  too  readily 
flatters  himself  that  somehow  or  other  he  and  his 
friends  will  all  be  ''saved."  But  a  Heaven  which 
can  be  so  cheaply  earned  is  scarcely  worth  striv- 
ing for.  The  practical  abolition  of  Hell  car- 
ries with  It  the  practical  abolition  of  Heaven,  for 
In  proportion  as  the  former  ceases  to  deter  the 
latter  ceases  to  attract.  Ev^en  among  those  who 
call  themselves  believers  there  Is  an  ever-growing 
tendency  to  live  wholly  In  the  present,  and  to 
turn  away  from  the  contemplation  of  death  and 
its  consequences. 

Yet  the  very  materialism   of  the  West  has 
been,  In  a  sense,  its  salvation.     The  soul  of  man 


EAST  AND  WEST  13 

has  grown  in  the  Western  world,  not  because 
reHgion  has  directly  fostered  its  growth,  but  be- 
cause circumstances  which  the  very  irreligious- 
ness  of  popular  thought — its  very  indifference 
to  what  is  inward  and  spiritual — has  helped  to 
create,  have  actually  compelled  it  to  grow.  The 
intense  interest  which  the  Western  mind  takes  in 
the  outward  world,  has  caused  it  to  devote  itself 
with  whole-hearted  energy  to  the  study  of 
physical  science.  Scientific  research  prepares  the 
way  for  practical  discoveries  and  inventions;  and 
these  are  ever  tending  to  modify — some  of  them 
have  in  recent  years  revolutionised — the  mate- 
rial conditions  of  human  life.  In  its  efforts  to 
adapt  itself  to  the  never-ending  changes  in  its 
environment  which  Western  inventiveness  tends 
to  produce,  the  soul  is  not  only  kept  alive  and 
awake,  but  must  needs  make  considerable  growth 
in  certain  directions.  That  the  growth  which  it 
makes  is  inharmonious  and  one-sided;  that  the 
spiritual  side  of  it  has  not  kept  pace,  in  its  de- 
velopment, with  the  intellectual;  that  its  spiritual 
faculties  have  been  to  some  extent  atrophied  by 
the  diversion  of  its  vital  energies  into  the  chan- 
nel of  mental  growth; — is  unhappily  true.  But 
the  fact  remains  that  the  sap  of  life  Is  running 
strongly  in  the  soul  of  the  Western  world;  and 
from  this  one  may  perhaps  infer  that  it  will  make 
vigorous  growth  in  the  right  direction,  when  the 
higher   impulses    and   the   higher   guidance    for 


14        THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

which  It  Is  waiting  are  given  to  It.  Even  that 
strong  and  ever  growing  Individualism  which, 
for  the  time  being,  seems  to  have  raised  selfish- 
ness and  ambition  to  the  rank  of  virtues,  has  a 
moral  value  which  cannot  well  be  over-estimated. 
It  .is  In  the  soil  of  social  Individualism  that  the 
seeds  of  freedom  and  of  the  love  of  freedom 
must  be  sown;  and  though  In  Its  earlier  stages 
the  struggle  for  freedom  may  take  the  form  of 
selfish  rebellion  against  wise  and  lawful  re- 
straint, it  Is  certain  that,  with  the  gradual  growth 
of  the  soul,  man's  conception  of  freedom  will  be 
expanded  and  purified,  till  at  last  the  prize  of 
which  he  dreams  will  reveal  Itself  to  him  as 
the  first  condition,  nay,  as  the  very  counterpart, 
of  spiritual  life.  In  this  way — so  ready  Is 
Nature  to  turn  her  loss  to  gain — the  social  In- 
dividualism which  Is  one  of  the  by-products  of 
Western  philosophy,  tends  to  become  the  cham- 
pion of  spiritual  freedom  against  the  tyranni- 
cal encroachments  of  supernaturalism, — itself 
one  of  the  more  direct  and  obvious  products  of 
the  selfsame  tendency  of  thought. 

The  psychology  of  the  East  Is  as  simple  as 
It  Is  profound.  The  soul,  or  inward  life,  alone 
is  real.  Eternity  Is  a  vital  aspect  of  reality. 
Birthlessness  and  deathlessness  are  the  temporal 
aspects  of  eternity.  The  present  existence  of  the 
soul  is  not  more  certain  than  its  pre-existenceand 
its  future  existence;  and  these  three — the  past. 


EAST  AND  WEST  15 

the  present,  and  the  future  lives — are  stages  in  an 
entirely  natural  process.  The  present  life  is  al- 
ways brief  and  fleeting;  but  the  past  begins,  as 
the  future  ends,  in  eternity, — in  the  timeless  life 
of  God  himself.  Issuing  from  the  Universal  Soul, 
and  passing  through  seons  of  what  I  may  call  pre- 
natal existence,  the  soul  at  last  becomes  individ- 
ualised, and  enters  on  a  career  of  conscious  activ- 
ty.  Far  from  being  dependent  on  the  body,  it 
accretes  to  itself,  on  whatever  plane  It  may  ener- 
gise, the  outward  form  that  it  needs  and  de- 
serves; and,  in  each  of  its  many  deaths,  it  is  the 
body  that  dies,  deprived  of  the  vitalising  presence 
that  animated  it, — not  the  soul. 

Never  the   spirit   was   born ;    the   spirit   shall   cease   to   be 
never ; 
Never   was    time    it    was   not ;    End   and   Beginning    are 
dreams ! 
Birthless  and  deathless  and  changeless  remaineth  the  spirit 
for  ever; 
Death  hath  not  touched  it  at  all,  dead  though  the  house 
of  it  seems!* 

The  destiny  of  the  soul  is  determined  by  its 
origin.  Issuing  from  the  Universal  Soul,  it  must 
eventually  be  re-absorbed  into  its  divine  source. 
Beginning  its  individualised  career  as  a  spiritual 
germ,  it  passes  through  Innumerable  lives  on  its 
way  to  the  goal  of  spiritual  maturity.  The  de- 
velopment of  the  germ-soul  takes  the  form  of  the 
gradual  expansion  of  its  consciousness  and  the 

*"The  Song  Celestial,"  by  Sir  Edwin  Arnold. 


i6         THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

gradual  universalisation  of  its  life.  As  It  ncars 
Its  goal,  the  chains  of  Individuality  relax  their 
hold  upon  it;  and  at  last, — with  the  final  extinc- 
tion of  egoism,  with  the  final  triumph  of  selfless- 
ness, with  the  expansion  of  consciousness  till  it 
has  become  all-embracing, — the  sense  of  sepa- 
rateness  entirely  ceases,  and  the  soul  finds  Its  true 
self,  or,  in  other  words,  becomes  fully  and  clearly 
conscious  of  its  oneness  Avith  the  living  Whole. 

This  pure  and  exalted  creed,  besides  placing 
before  man  the  highest  and  truest  of  all  Ideals — 
that  of  utter  selflessness — has  the  merit  of  brmg- 
ing  the  whole  of  human  life  under  the  dominion 
of  natural  law.  Indeed,  it  applies  to  the  life  of 
the  soul  that  great  natural  lavv^,  the  discovery  of 
which  in  the  sphere  of  physical  life  has  been  one 
of  the  foremost  achievements  of  modern  thought, 
— the  law  of  evolution.  One  consequence  of 
this  is  that  the  notions  of  arbitrariness,  favourit- 
ism, and  caprice,  which  cling,  de  facto  If  not  de 
jure,  to  the  conception  of  a  supernatural  God, 
and  which  introduce  a  gambling  element — a 
readiness  to  take  risks,  a  tendency  to  put  off 
things  to  the  eleventh  hour — into  the  practical 
morality  of  the  West,  have  no  place  In  the  ethi- 
cal philosophy  of  the  East.  The  Catholic  be- 
lief in  the  efficacy  of  the  last  rites  of  the  Church, 
the  Protestant  belief  that  a  deathbed  repentance 
may  open  the  door  of  Salvation  to  one  who  has 
led  an  Impious  life,  bear  witness,  each  In  its  own 


EAST  AND  WEST  17 

way,  to  the  presence  in  the  rehgious  atmosphere 
of  the  West  of  a  fantastic  conception  of  God 
which  is  absokitely  irreconcilable  with  the  pri- 
mary assumption  of  Eastern  thought.  It  is  of 
Brahma  rather  than  of  Jehovah  that  the  words 
of  the  Lawgiver  hold  good:  "God  Is  not  a 
man  that  he  shall  lie,  neither  the  son  of  man 
that  he  shall  repent."  The  successive  lives  of 
the  soul,  to  which  Eastern  thought  looks  back- 
ward and  forward,  are  linked  together  by  a  chain 
of  natural  causation.  What  a  man  sows  that 
shall  he  reap,  not  in  this  earth-life  only  but  also 
in  the  lives  that  are  yet  to  be.  The  primary  rela- 
tion between  the  individual  and  the  Universal 
Self  Is  an  essentially  natural  relation;  and 
through  this  vast  conception  the  whole  spiritual 
world  is  brought  under  the  dominion  of  natural 
law. 

So  pure,  and  so  exalted  Is  the  inner  faith  of  the 
East,  that  the  excess  of  these  qualities  Is  perhaps 
its  only  defect.  The  ideas  that  It  embodies  im- 
mensely transcend  the  normal  range  of  human 
desire  and  human  thought,  with  the  result  that 
it  has  ever  been  and  will  long  continue  to  be  an 
esoteric  creed.  Yet  the  life  of  the  masses  In  the 
East  owes  much  to  its  occult  influence.  Besides 
investing  the  ethics  of  half  the  hum.an  race  with 
an  atmosphere  of  natural  law,  the  Brahmanic 
ideal  of  duty,  though  beyond  the  apprehension  of 
ordinary   mortals,   makes   two   contributions   of 


1 8         THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

Inestimable  value  to  the  popular  morality, — the 
sentiment  of  devotion  to  impersonal  causes,  and 
the  kindred  sense  of  detachment  from  material 
aims  and  interests.  We  have  seen  that,  as  the  fig- 
ure of  Brahma  recedes  into  the  dim  background, 
lesser  Gods  come  forth  and  claim  man's  homage. 
So  too,  as  the  Brahmanic  Ideal  (devotion  to,  cul- 
minating in  re-union  with,  the  Universal  Self) 
fades  Into  the  background,  lesser  ideals,  such  as 
patriotism,  tribal  loyalty,  filial  piety,  and  the  like, 
come  forth  and  claim  man's  devotion.  In  Japan, 
whose  people  during  the  past  50  years  have 
transferred  to  their  country  the  devotion  which 
they  formerly  gave  to  the  family  and  the  clan, 
patriotism — as  widespread  as  it  is  intense — has 
transformed  an  obscure,  remote,  and  apparently 
helpless  country  into  one  of  the  foremost  nations 
of  the  world.  In  China,  where  patriotism  has 
but  an  embryonic  existence,  filial  piety  w^Ill  move 
a  man  to  sell  himself  into  slavery  or  to  devote 
himself  to  certain  death.  Men  who  value  life 
lightly  will  set  but  little  store  on  those  perish- 
able accessories  of  life  which  the  Western  world 
esteems  so  highly.  Among  the  personal  desires 
which  the  sentiment  of  devotion  to  impersonal 
causes  tends  to  suppress,  the  first  and  most  ob- 
vious is  the  desire  for  material  possessions, — the 
thirst  for  wealth.  One  might  wander  far  and 
wide  through  Europe  and  America  without  find- 
ing such  calm  indifference  to  the  charms  of  prop- 


EAST  AND  WEST  19 

erty,  on  the  part  of  a  man  of  business,  as  the  Bur- 
mese contractor  displayed  who  spent  five-sixths 
of  his  modest  income  in  charity,  and  was  ready  to 
retire  from  business  because  he  had  enough  to 
live  on  quietly  (his  personal  wants  being  very 
few)  for  the  rest  of  his  life.*  "His  action,"  says 
the  writer  who  tells  of  him,  "is  no  exception,  but 
the  rule." 

But  the  very  disinterestedness  of  the  Oriental 
mind  may  well  become  the  cause  of  its  undoing. 
Just  as  the  West  has  the  qualities  of  its  de- 
fects, so  the  East  has  the  defects  of  its  qualities. 
The  communism  and  idealism  of  the  East  have 
been  unfavourable  to  the  growth  of  physical 
science  (the  nidus  of  which  has  been  in  the  main 
utilitarian),  and  to  the  development  by  man  of 
the  material  resources  of  the  earth.  As  science 
and  industrialism  are  among  the  chief  causes  of 
change  in  the  external  conditions  of  human  life, 
and  as  the  endeavour  to  adapt  itself  to  a  chan- 
ging environment  is  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  the 
development  of  the  human  spirit,  we  seem  to  be 
driven  to  the  paradoxical  conclusion  that  the  pe- 
riodic immobility  of  the  East,  which  arrests  the 
growth  of  the  soul,  both  by  denying  it  the  op- 
portunities for  growth  and  making  it  revere 
custom  for  its  own  dead  sake,  is  due  in  no  small 
measure  to  the  very  strength  of  the  Eastern  faith 

*See  "The   Soul   of  a   People"    (by  H.   Fielding  Hall). 
Chap.  IX. 


20         THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

in  the  soul.  So  too,  though  the  suppression  of  in- 
dividuality is  the  last  and  highest  achievement 
of  the  soul  in  its  struggle  for  spiritual  freedom, 
the  war  which  Eastern  thought  has  ever  waged 
against  individualism  tends  to  keep  the  mass  of 
men  in  leading  strings,  and  to  deny  them  that 
initial  boon  of  social  freedom  without  which  the 
struggle  for  spiritual  freedom — a  struggle  in 
which  the  soul  is  schooled  by  its  very  blunders, 
and  taught  to  conquer  by  its  very  failures — can- 
not well  be  begun. 

Separated  from  each  other  for  thousands  of 
miles  by  impassable  mountain-chains  and  pathless 
deserts,  the  two  worlds — the  Eastern  and  West- 
ern— have  had  so  little  intercourse  with  each 
other,  that  each  in  turn  has  been  free  to  develop, 
without  let  or  hindrance,  it  own  type  of  civilisa- 
tion, its  own  philosophy,  its  own  ideal  of  life."^ 

*I  do  not  forget  that  India  has  again  and  again  been  in- 
vaded and  partially  conquered  by  armies  which  poured  into 
It  through  the  North-Wcstern  passes.  But  these  invasions, 
with  the  exception  of  that  which  Alexander  the  Great  con- 
ducted, did  little  or  nothing  to  promote  spiritual  intercourse 
between  the  Eastern  and  Western  worlds.  For,  speaking 
generally,  the  invaders  were  too  undeveloped  and  unen- 
lightened to  be  able  to  assimilate  the  spiritual  ideas  of  the 
land  which  they  entered.  The  earlier  invaders,  who  ac- 
cepted Buddhism,  precipitated  the  downfall  of  that  religion 
in  India  by  debasing  and  corrupting  it  till  it  lost  its  iden- 
tity. The  later  invaders,  who  introduced  Mahometanism 
into  India,  were  debarred  by  their  own  bigotry  from  getting 
into  touch  with  the  profound  faith  which  slumbered  behind 
the  "idolatry"  of  the  conquered  people.  The  North-West- 
ern  passes  have  never,  since  tljo  downfall  of  Hellenism  in 
Central  Asia,  been  an  open  door  between  East  and  West. 
The    door    has    opened    wide    enough    to    admit    invading 


EAST  AND  WEST  21 

Of  late  years,  intercourse  between  the  two  worlds 
has  been  fostered  by  various  causes,  and  there  is 
reason  to  believe  that  it  will  become  closer  and 
more  continuous  as  time  goes  on.  With  the  re- 
moval of  the  barriers  that  held  the  two  worlds 
apart,  their  respective  ideals  will  begin  to  in- 
fluence each  other;  and  one  may  venture  to  hope, 
or  at  least  to  dream,  that  in  the  far-off  future  a 
new  ideal,  higher  and  truer  than  either  of  these 
"mighty  opposites,"  will  be  evolved  by  their  re- 
ciprocal action,  and  will  become  the  common  pos- 
session of  the  whole  human  race.  Meanwhile,  it 
is  essential  that  an  attempt  should  be  made  by 
the  more  advanced  spirits  in  each  world  to  un- 
derstand the  thoughts,  the  dreams,  the  aims,  the 
aspirations  of  the  other.  Recognition  of  the  pro- 
fundity of  the  abyss  that  parts  the  two  types 
of  mind,  is  the  first  step  in  the  direction  that  I 
have  indicated.  Recognition  of  the  possible  one- 
sidedness  and  inadequacy  of  one's  own  spirit- 
ual prejudices,  is  the  second.  The  thinker  of 
either  world  who  cannot  divest  himself,  even 
provisionally  and  hypothetically,  of  his  own 
habits  of  thought  will  never  be  initiated  into  the 
mysteries  of  the  other  world.  The  abyss  be- 
tween East  and  West  is  not  to  be  crossed  by  any 
bridge  of  controversial  argument;  for,  owing  to 

armies,  and  after  a  time  has  closed,  as  it  were,  behind 
them.  It  is  only  through  the  gateway  of  the  seas — now  at 
last  thrown  open  to  all  men — that  sustained  intercourse  be- 
tween the  two  worlds  can  be  carried  on. 


22         THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

the  two  philosophies  having,  as  philosophies,  no 
common  ground  of  agreement,  the  piers  that 
should  support  the  bridge  could  never  get  down 
to  the  bedrock  of  proof.  It  is  only  by  outsoaring 
the  abyss  on  the  wings  of  imaginative  sympathy 
that  one  may  hope  to  span  its  depths. 


Chapter  II 

THE   WISDOM   OF   THE   EAST 

THERE  were  mighty  warriors  before 
the  days  of  Agamemnon,  and 
mighty  thinkers  before  the  days  of 
Socrates  and  Plato.  Greatest  of  all 
the  forgotten  thinkers  of  antiquity, 
greatest,  as  it  seems  to  me,  of  all  who  have  ever 
consecrated  their  mental  powers  to  the  service  of 
Humanity,  was  the  sage  whose  vision  of  reality 
found  expression  in  the  parables  and  aphorisms 
of  the  Upanishads.  So  lofty  was  the  plane  on 
which  his  spirit  moved  that,  however  high  the 
fountain  of  idealistic  speculation  may  ascend  in 
its  periodic  outbursts  of  activity,  it  can  never  do 
more  than  seek  the  level  of  his  thought.  » 

Philosophy  is,  in  its  essence,  the  quest  of  reali- 
ty. In  the  attempt  to  determine  what  is  real,  one 
has  to  choose,  in  the  first  instance,  between  the 
percipient  self  and  the  things  that  it  perceives.* 

*I  start,  as  everyone  instinctively  does,  by  postulating 
the  reality  of  both  worlds, — the  inward  and  the  outward. 
The  attempt  to  solve  the  problem  of  reality,  whatever  form 
ii  may  take,  will  never  stultify  this  primary  postulate;  for 
the  real  and  the  unreal  are  not  alternatives,  but  polar  oppo- 
sites,   and   as   such   always   co-exist,    "varying   together   in 

23 


24        THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

This  choice  may  seem  to  be  purely  metaphysical, 
but  sooner  or  later  it  becomes  a  moral  choice  and 
one  which  is  decisive  of  the  chooser's  destiny. 
For  him  who  can  face  the  problem  steadily  there 
is,  in  the  last  resort,  but  one  possible  solution  of 
it.  If  we  may  assume  that  each  term  of  the  given 
antithesis  has  some  measure  of  reality,  we  need 
be  in  no  doubt  as  to  which  is  the  more  real.  The 
problem  solves  itself,  for  the  simple  reason  that 
the  decision  as  to  whether  the  self  or  the  outward 
world  is  (relatively)  real  rests  with  the  self,  not 
with  the  outward  world.  It  is  /  who  have  to 
make  the  choice  between  myself  and  the  world 
that  surrounds  me ;  and  I  have  to  make  it  to  my 
own  satisfaction.  Is  it  possible  for  me  to  remain 
impartial?  Am  I  not  inevitably  prejudiced  in  fa- 
vour of  myself?  If  I  invest  the  outward  world 
with  reality  of  any  degree  or  kind,  if  I  persuade 
myself  that  it  is  more  real  than  I  am,  if,  by  some 
metaphysical  tour  de  force,  I  go  so  far  as  to  re- 
gard it  as  the  substance  of  which  I  am  merely  the 
shadow,  the  fact  remains  that  it  is  I  who  am 
guaranteeing  its  reality;  and,  that  being  so,  the 
question  inevitably  suggests  itself:  If  the  guar- 
antor is  metaphysically  insolvent,  what  is  the 
value  of  his  guarantee?  The  man  who  can  allow 
himself  to  say:     "I  can  see  the  outward  world; 

inverse  proportion."  The  dualistic  and  the  monistic  so- 
lutions of  the  problem  are  not  solutions  at  all ;  for  what 
they  do  to  the  problem  is  to  transfer  it  to  the  false  and  im- 
possible category  of  the  existent  and  the  non-existent. 


THE  WISDOM  OF  THE  EAST       25 

therefore  it  is  real.  But  1  cannot  see  my  self; 
therefore  /  am  non-existent:"  is  obviously  the 
victim  of  a  singular  confusion  of  thought.  It 
is  sometimes  said  that  the  idealist  starts 
with  himself,  and  never  gets  to  the  out- 
ward world.  There  are  certain  dialectical 
developments  of  idealism  of  which  this  criti- 
cism may  perhaps  hold  good;  but,  as  a  general 
criticism  of  idealism,  it  is,  I  think,  entirely  un- 
true. The  idealist  starts,  where  every  thinker 
must  start,  with  provisional  acceptance  of  the 
outward  world  as  well  as  of  the  percipient  self; 
and,  in  common  with  all  his  fellow  men,  he  in- 
vests the  former  with  some  measure  or  degree  of 
reality;  but,  in  the  act  of  guaranteeing  its  reality, 
he  guarantees  (as  he  has  discernment  enough  to 
realise)  a  fuller  measure  and  a  higher  degree  of 
reality  to  himself.  Nor  is  the  value  of  the  latter 
guarantee  impaired  by  the  patent  fact  that  it  is 
illogical  to  go  surety'  for  oneself.  To  prove  the 
reality  of  what  alone  enables  one  to  prove  reality 
is,  for  obvious  reasons,  impossible.  But  the 
Universe  (as  I  know  it)  would  melt  into  a 
dream-world  if  I  could  not  place  my  self  at  the 
centre  of  it;  and  my  inability  to  prove,  or  even 
begin  to  prove,  that  my  self  is  real,  matters  little 
so  long  as  Nature  herself  constrains  me — with 
or  without  the  consent  of  my  consciousness — to 
postulate  its  reality. 

In  the  choice  between  the  percipient  self  and 


26         THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

the  objects  of  Its  perception,  the  thinkers  of  In- 
dia threw  the  whole  weight  of  their  thought  on 
the  side  of  the  former.  The  philosophy  of  the 
Far  East,  which  has  ever  been  dominated  by 
the  "  ancient  wisdom  '*  of  India,  bases  itself  on 
acceptance  of  the  self  or  soul,  just  as  the  philoso- 
phy of  the  West  bases  Itself  on  acceptance  of  the 
outward  world.  This  Is  a  point  on  which  I  have 
already  dwelt,  and  need  not  further  enlarge. 
What  It  now  concerns  us  to  notice  Is  that  there 
are  vast  philosophical  conceptions  Implicit  In  the 
germinal  assumption  of  Eastern  thought,  and 
that  the  thinker  who  speaks  to  us  In 

"The  grand,   sonorous,   long-linked   lines" 

of  the  Upanlshads,  proved  his  greatness  by  the 
profound  Insight  and  the  speculative  daring  with 
which  he  developed  those  conceptions  Into  a 
world-embracing  system  of  thought.* 

Let  us,  with  the  aid  of  the  Upanlshads,  at- 
tempt to  do  his  thinking  for  him.  If  In  the  mi- 
crocosm, the  world  which  directly  and  obviously 
centres  In  the  Individual,  the  self  or  conscious 
subject  Is  real  and  the  objects  of  Its  knowledge 
are  by  comparison  unreal,  must  It  not  be  the 
same — one  Instinctively  argues — In  the  macro- 
cosm, or  totality  of  things?  Is  there  not  at 
the  heart  of  the  Universe  a  conscious  life,  and 

*The  Upanishads  were,  no  doubt,  the  work  of  many 
minds ;  but  behind  those  many  minds  stands,  if  I  am  not 
mistaken,  the  shadowy  form  of  one  Master  Thinker, 

II  maestro  di  color  che  sanno. 


THE  WISDOM  OF  THE  EAST       27 

Is  not  this  all-conscious  life — this  Universal* 
Self,  as  we  may  call  It — the  supreme  reality 
by  reference  to  which  all  existent  things,  when 
their  claims  to  reality  are  tested,  take  their  sev- 
eral "stations  and  degrees"?  To  argue  from 
one's  own  experience  (whether  rightly  or  wrong- 
ly interpreted)  to  the  world  at  large  is  permis- 
sible, for  the  simple  but  sufficient  reason  that 
It  Is  Inevitable.  The  man  who  inclines  to  ma- 
terialism when  he  makes  his  choice  between  his 
own  self  and  the  world  that  environs  him,  will 
be  a  materialist  in  his  general  conception  of  the 
Universe.  The  transition  from  personal  to  im- 
personal idealism  is  equally  natural  and  neces- 
sary. The  truth  is  that  the  distinction  between 
the  microcosm  and  the  macrocosm  is  a  tentative 
and  provisional  one,  which  readily  melts  away 
under  the  solvent  Influence  of  speculative 
thought.  The  microcosm,  as  we  try  to  define  its 
boundaries,  gradually  expands  into  the  macro- 
cosm; and  the  relation  between  the  two  is  seen 
to  be  one,  not  of  analogy  merely,  but  of  ultimate 
identity.  The  reality  of  the  Universal  Self  is 
as  certain  as  the  reality  of  the  individual  self; 
and  in  the  act  of  accepting  the  latter  we  accept 
the  former,  with  all  that  it  implies. 

For  Indian  thought,  then,  which  started  with 

*Here  and  throughout  this  hook  (so  far  as  what  I  say- 
is  the  expression  of  my  own  thoughts)  I  use  the  word 
universal^  and  all  kindred  words,  in  a  relative,  not  an  abso- 
lute sense. 


28         THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

acceptance  of  the  individual  self,  Brahma — the 
Universal  Soul  or  Self — was  and  is  alone  real. 
The  first  thing  that  we  can  say  about  him  Is  that 
he  is  unknown  and  unknowable.  In  the  world 
which  centres  in  me,  It  is  I,  the  knower,  who  am 
unknown  and  unknowable.  It  is  the  same  In  the 
Cosmos.  We  must  either  keep  silence  when  we 
meditate  on  Brahma,  or  speak  of  him  (as  the 
Upanishads  habitually  do)  In  the  language  of 
paradox  and  negation.  Speech  cannot  reveal  him, 
for  he  makes  speech  possible.  Thought  cannot 
reveal  him,  for  he  makes  thought  possible.  Sight 
cannot  reveal  him,  for  he  makes  sight  possible. 
Hearing  cannot  reveal  him,  for  he  makes  hear- 
ing possible.  He  is  afar  and  yet  near.  He  is 
innermost  and  outermost.  Though  swifter  than 
the  mind,  he  moveth  not.  All  things  are  in  him, 
and  he  is  In  everything.  All  opposites  are  har- 
monised in  him, — being  and  non-being,  wisdom 
and  unwisdom,  right  and  wrong.  He  Is  beyond 
sight,  beyond  speech,  beyond  mind,  beyond  the 
known,  beyond  the  unknown.  *'If  thou  thinkest 
'I  know  him  well,'  but  little  sure  of  Brahma  dost 
thou  know." 

"He  is  unknown  to  whoso  think  they  know, 
But  known  to  whoso  know  they  know  him  not."* 

But  though  he  is  In  very  truth  the  Unknown 
and  Unknowable,  he  Is  not  "the  Unknowable"  of 

*"The  Secret  of  Death,"  by  Sir  Edwin  Arnold. 


THE  WISDOM  OF  THE  EAST       29 

modern  European  thought.  In  the  "synthetic" 
philosophy  the  Unknowable  is  a  background  of 
unreality  which  brings  out  into  strong  relief 
the  reality  of  the  phenomenal  world.  Or,  again, 
it  Is  a  convenient  hypothesis  which  bears,  like 
the  scapegoat  of  old,  the  sins  and  follies  of 
idealism,  and  takes  them  away  into  the  wilder- 
ness of  non-existence,  and  so  sets  the  thinker  free 
to  develop,  without  let  or  hindrance,  a  mate- 
rialistic system  of  thought.  But  the  Unknowable 
of  Indian  philosophy  is  the  most  real  of  all  reali- 
ties. Indeed  it  is  the  sum  total  of  reality,  the 
beginning  and  end  of  all  that  really  is. 

"This  is  that  ultimate  and  uttermost 
Which  shall  not  be  beheld,  being  in  all 
The  unbeholden  essence!"* 

Brahma,  then,  far  from  being  the  pale  re- 
flection of  our  own  complacent  ignorance,  is  the 
innermost  reality,  in  the  sense  that  all  existent 
things  have  their  life  and  their  power  in  him. 
This  conception  finds  fitting  expression  in  the 
parable  of  Brahma  and  the  Gods.  The  story 
goes  that  Brahma  once  won  a  victory  for  the 
Gods, — Wind,  Fire,  and  the  rest.  They  thought, 
"Ours  is  this  victory,  our  very  own  the  triumph." 
Knowing  their  thought,  Brahma  stood  before 
them.  They  knew  him  not,  and  wondered  who 
he  was.    They  said  to  Fire,  "Find  out,  all-know- 

*"The  Secret  of  Death."  by  Sir  Edwin  Arnold. 


30         THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

Ing  one,  who  that  wondrous  Being  is.''  Fire 
did  their  bidding,  and,  as  he  drew  near  to  the 
stranger,  was  greeted  with  the  words,  "Who 
art  thou?"  "Why,  I  am  Fire,"  he  answered, 
"all-knowing  Fire  am  I."  "What  power  is  In 
thine  I-ness,  then?"  said  the  stranger.  "Why, 
I  can  burn  up  everything  on  earth,"  said  Fire. 
Then  the  stranger  set  a  straw  before  him,  and 
bade  him  burn  it.  He  smote  it  with  all  his  might, 
but  could  not  even  scorch  it.  So  he  returned  and 
said,  "I  could  not  find  out  who  that  wondrous 
Being  is."  Then  Air  was  sent  on  the  same 
quest,  and  he  too  was  asked,  "Who  art  thou?" 
"Why,  I  am  Air,"  he  answered,  "breather  in 
mother  space  am  I."  "What  power  is  in  thine 
I-ness  then?"  said  the  stranger.  "Why,  I  can 
blow  away  all  things  on  earth,"  said  Air.  Then 
the  stranger  set  a  straw  before  him,  and  bade  him 
blow  It  away.  He  smote  it  with  all  his  might, 
but  could  not  stir  it.  So  he  too  returned  and 
said,  "I  could  not  find  out  who  that  wondrous 
Being  is."  Then  "the  Lord"  (Indra)  was  sent; 
but  the  stranger,  as  he  drew  near  to  him,  van- 
ished from  his  sight,  and  where  he  had  been 
standing  there  stood  a  beautiful  woman  arrayed 
in  gold.  Of  her  the  Lord  asked  who  the  stranger 
was.  "Brahma,"  she  said.  "In  Brahma's  con- 
quest do  ye  triumph." 

The  moral  of  this  story  Is  plain.     Individ- 
uality is  the  negation  of  reality.    Apart  from  the 


THE  WISDOM  OF  THE  EAST      3 1 

One  the  individual  is  nothing.  Even  the  high 
Gods  triumph  in  Brahma's  might.  Left  to  them- 
selves, they  have  no  power,  no  life.  Their  self- 
hood, when  severed  from  the  Universal  selfhood, 
is  a  pure  delusion.  Fire  cannot  of  himself  burn 
a  straw.  Air  cannot  of  himself  blow  a  straw 
away.  The  Universal  Self  Is  the  true  self  of 
each  of  the  high  Gods.  It  follows,  a  fortiori,  that 
it  is  the  true  self  of  each  individual  man.  We 
have  seen  that  the  microcosm,  as  we  try  to  de- 
fine Its  boundaries,  gradually  expands  into  the 
macrocosm,  and  that  the  relation  between  the 
two  worlds  is  one,  not  of  analogy  merely,  but  of 
ultimate  identity.  There  Is  a  corollary  to  this 
general  conception  of  things,  which  Indian 
thought  did  not  fail  to  draw.  As  the  microcosm 
expands  Into  the  macrocosm,  so  does  what  Is  real 
in  the  former — the  Individual  self — expand 
Into  what  Is  real  In  the  latter, — the  Universal 
Self.  The  relation  between  the  two  selves,  like 
the  relation  between  the  two  worlds,  is  one,  not 
of  analogy  merely,  but  of  ultimate  Identity.  As 
I  try  to  determine  what  my  self  really  Is,  I 
find  that  it  begins  to  melt  Into  the  Universal  Self; 
and  at  last  the  Idea  begins  to  dawn  upon  me  that 
the  Universal  Self,  the  All-Consciousness,  Is  the 
real  self  of  each  individual  man,  and  that  until  I 
have  found  the  Universal  Self,  made  myself 
one  with  It,  made  it  in  some  sort  my  own,  I  am 
not  really  free  to  say,  "I  am  I." 


3a         THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

This  grand  conception  Is  the  keystone  of  the 
whole  arch  of  Indian  thought.  Let  us  consider 
its  bearing  on  human  life.  We  must  first  remind 
ourselves  that  the  philosophy  of  ancient  India 
brings  the  whole  Universe  under  the  dominion 
of  natural  law.  The  Divine  Self  does  not  dwell 
above  or  apart  from  the  world  of  Nature,  but 
at  the  very  heart  of  it,  being  indeed  the  vital 
essence  of  Nature, — the  revelation  to  him  whose 
Inward  eyes  are  open,  of  what  Nature  really  Is. 
It  follows  that  the  natural  order  of  things  Is  the 
expression,  or  at  any  rate  an  expression,  of  the 
Divine  Self;  that  the  central  forces  of  Nature 
are  a  manifestation  of  the  Divine  Will;  and 
that  through  the  whole  system  of  natural  law 
the  One,  who  "remains,"  proves  his  presence  in 
and  through  the  Many,  which  "change  and  pass." 
The  physical  science  of  the  West  believes  itself 
to  have  evolved  the  conception  of  natural  law, 
and  claims  to  have  exclusive  rights  in  It.  But 
In  this,  as  In  other  matters,  we  must  distinguish 
between  the  conscious  and  the  unconscious  appre- 
hension of  a  philosophic  truth.  The  sense  of 
law  and  order  In  Nature  is  not  only  common  to 
all  human  beings,  from  the  savant  In  his  labora- 
tory to  the  "burnt  child"  that  "dreads  the  fire," 
but  is  also  present,  however  dimly  or  Inchoately, 
In  every  organism,  however  lowly,  which  adapts 
itself  with  any  measure  of  success  to  the  world 
in  which  it  lives.     But,  whereas  in  the  West  the 


THE  WISDOM  OF  THE  EAST       33 

conception  of  natural  law  has  In  the  main  been 
applied  to  the  outward  and  visible  world,  in  the 
East,  where  the  outward  and  visible  world  owes 
such  reality  as  it  possesses  to  Its  own  inward 
and  spiritual  life,  the  conception  of  law  has  not 
merely  been  applied  to  the  Inward  and  spiritual 
life,  but  has  been  more  intimately  associated  with 
It  than  with  any  other  aspect  of  Nature.  In  the 
Universe,  as  the  popular  thought  of  the  West 
conceives  of  it,  there  are  two  worlds, — the  nat- 
ural, which  is  under  the  dominion  of  law,  and 
the  supernatural,  which  is  under  the  sway  of  an 
arbitrary  and  Irresponsible  despot,  who  can  also 
suspend  or  modify  at  will  the  laws  of  the  natural 
world.  But  Eastern  thought,  In  conceiving  of 
the  inward  life  as  the  real  self  of  Nature,  con- 
ceived of  it  also  as  the  ultimate  and  eternal  source 
of  all  natural  law.  Indeed,  It  Is  In  and  through 
the  inward  life  that  Nature — the  totality  of 
things — is  transformed  from  a  chaos  Into  a  cos- 
mos, from  an  aggregate  of  atoms  into  an  organic 
Whole. 

Now  the  Universal  Soul  Is  not  only  the  real 
self  of  the  whole  Universe,  but  Is  also,  more 
particularly,  the  real  self  of  each  individual  soul. 
This  fundamental  fact  determines  the  destiny  of 
Humanity,  and  the  duty  (or  Individualised  des- 
tiny) of  each  particular  man.  Applying  to  the 
life  of  the  human  soul  the  highest  of  all  nat- 
ural laws — that  of  organic  growth — the  think- 


34        THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

ers  of  the  East  evolved  a  sublime  idealism  which 
may  be  said  to  have  centred  in  the  following 
"sovereign  dogma."  As  the  destiny  of  every 
animal  and  plant  Is  to  find  its  true  self,  or,  in 
other  words,  advance  towards  the  perfection  of 
which  its  nature  Is  capable, — so  the  destiny  of 
man,  as  a  "living  soul,"  is  to  find  his  true  self,  by 
growing  Into  oneness  with  the  Divine  or  Uni- 
versal Soul,  which  is  In  very  truth  the  Ideal  per- 
fection of  all  soul-life. 

Having  set  man  this  tremendous  task,  they 
gave  him  ample  time  In  which  to  accomplish  it. 
There  Is  no  respect  In  which  the  Eastern  mind 
differs  so  widely  from  the  Western  as  In  the 
range  of  their  respective  visions.  The  temporal 
horizon  of  Western  thought  had  never,  until 
the  discoveries  of  physical  science  transformed 
Its  conceptions,  been  more  than  a  few  hundreds 
or,  at  most,  thousands  of  years  from  the  mental 
eye  of  the  spectator.  A  generation  ago.  It  was 
possible  for  learned  men  to  believe,  in  all  serious- 
ness, that  the  Universe  was  created  4004  years 
before  the  birth  of  Christ.  Nor  did  this  gro- 
tesque belief  begin  to  fall  into  discredit  until 
Science  had  convinced  men  that  the  changes 
which  are  registered  in  the  strata  of  the  earth's 
surface  had  taken  millions  of  years  to  accom- 
plish. The  Idea  that  aeons  are  needed  for  the 
spiritual  development  of  each  individual  man  is 
one  which  is  still  foreign  to  the  Western  mind. 


THE  WISDOM  OF  THE  EAST      35 

That  a  single  earth-life,  or  fraction  of  a  life 
on  earth  (for  it  is  never  too  late  for  the  sinner 
to  repent  and  be  "saved"),  can  fit  the  soul  for 
"eternal  life,"  can  fit  it,  in  other  words,  either 
for  immediate  admission  into  the  pure  light  of 
God's  unclouded  presence,  or  for  entrance  into 
that  Purgatorial  world  which  is  the  ante-room 
of  Heaven, — this,  with  the  correlative  belief  that 
one  brief  earth-life  can  earn  for  a  man  the  tremen- 
dous penalty  of  eternal  damnation,  is  one  of  the 
accepted  doctrines  of  all  the  Christian  churches. 
The  very  glibness  with  which  the  pious  Chris- 
tian talks  of  dwelling  in  Heaven  "for  ever,"  is 
the  outcome  of  his  spiritual  myopia.  Eternity, 
as  he  calls  it,  is  but  a  high-sounding  name  for 
the  wall  of  darkness  which  bounds  his  vision  as 
he  looks  down  the  vista  of  soul-life. 

But  the  Eastern  mind  has  always  moved  with 
ease  through  vast  cycles  of  time;  and  as  Its  phi- 
losophy brings  all  things — spiritual  as  well  as 
physical — under  the  dominion  of  natural  law, 
and  therefore  forbids  It,  in  any  sphere  of  thought, 
to  pass  from  finite  causes  to  Infinite  effects,  It 
has  always  Instinctively  assumed  that  the  process 
of  growth  which  Is  to  transform  the  Individual 
Into  the  Universal  Self  Is,  speaking  generally,  of 
practically  Immeasurable  duration.  In  other 
words,  It  has  always  believed  that  the  soul  will 
pass  through  innumerable  lives  on  Its  way  to  Its 
divine  goal.     That  many  of  these  lives  must  be 


36         THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

passed  on  earth  has  always  been  taken  for  grant- 
ed. The  obvious  fact  that  in  one  earth-life  man 
can  learn  but  little  of  what  earth  has  to  teach 
him,  and  the  further  fact  that  most  men  die  with 
the  desire  for  the  goods  and  pleasures  of  earth 
still  strong  in  their  hearts,  lead  one  to  expect 
(once  the  idea  of  a  plurality  of  lives  has  been  ac- 
cepted) that  the  soul,  in  the  course  of  its  wander- 
ings, will  return  to  earth  again  and  again, — ^will 
return,  partly  in  order  to  widen  and  enrich  its  ex- 
perience, partly  in  response  to  attractive  forces 
which  it  has  not  yet  learned  to  control.  It  was 
in  this  way  that  the  doctrine  of  re-incarnation — 
of  a  re-incarnating  self  or  Ego — became  one  of 
the  cardinal  articles  of  the  faith  of  the  East. 

Let  us  follow  this  doctrine  into  some  of  its 
momentous  consequences.  The  prospect  of  at- 
taining, in  the  fullness  of  time,  to  the  infinite  bliss 
of  conscious  union  with  the  Divine  Life  must 
needs  disparage  the  attractions  of  earth.  Those 
who  believe  that  they  will  never  again  return  to 
earth  may  well  cling  fondly  to  this  temporal  life, 
— so  fondly  that  they  will  even  project  it  in  im- 
agination into  the  Heaven  to  which  they  look 
forward.  But  for  the  Eastern  mind  each  tem- 
poral life  was  (and  is)  a  stage  in  a  long  and  toil- 
some journey, — a  journey  which  seemed  to  grow 
ever  longer  and  more  toilsome,  in  proportion 
as  the  grandeur  of  the  destiny  that  awaited  the 


THE  WISDOM  OF  THE  EAST      37 

journeying  soul  was  more  and  more  vividly  real- 
ised. Hence  it  was  that  a  kind  of  high-souled 
Impatience,  a  "divine  homesickness"  (to  use 
Heine's  beautiful  words)  took  possession  of  the 
nobler  spirits  In  the  Eastern  world;  and  the  de- 
sire to  shorten  the  journey,  to  escape  as  early  as 
possible  from  the  "whirlpool  of  rebirth,"  grew 
up  and  m.ade  Its  presence  felt.  The  Western 
mind,  which  Is  constitutionally  incapable  of  see- 
ing more  than  a  few  years  Into  the  future,  finds 
much  to  satisfy  It  in  the  pleasures  and  pursuits 
of  earth.  But  the  far-sighted  Eastern  mind, 
looking  beyond  the  immediate  horizon  of  man's 
alms  and  Interests,  sees  that  disillusionment  and 
disappointment  are  the  Inevitable  sequels  to  suc- 
cess; sees  that  there  Is  nothing  of  earth  worth 
possessing,  except  what  Is  intrinsically  unattain- 
able In  any  earth-life, — nothing,  except  those 
prizes  which  v/ill  not  be  won  until  the  soul,  after 
many  wanderings,  has  entered  into  possession  of 
Its  kingdom, — nothing,  in  fine,  except  Beauty 
and  Love. 

But  how  was  the  journey  to  the  Inward  and 
spiritual  Heaven  to  be  shortened?  It  was  by 
the  actual  growth  of  the  soul,  with  the  concomi- 
tant expansion  of  its  consciousness,  that  the  goal 
was  to  be  reached.  When  the  individual  con- 
sciousness nad  become  all-embracing,  the  union  of 
the  soul  with  God  would  obviously  be  complete. 
What  if  the  process  of  soul-expansion  could  be 


38         THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

abridged?  What  if  the  soul  could  be  made  to 
realise — in  this  or  In  any  future  life — to  realise 
fully,  finally,  and  with  unfaltering  certitude,  that 
all  outward  things  are  unsubstantial  as  shadows, 
that  all  the  pleasures  and  Interests  of  earth  are 
evanescent  as  breaking  bubbles,  that  Its  own  In- 
dividuality Is  an  Illusion, — that  nothing,  in  fine, 
is  real,  either  In  the  Inward  or  In  the  outward 
world,  except  the  Universal  Self,  the  all-embrac- 
ing One?  If  the  hollowness  and  unreality  of 
earth  and  its  treasures  could  once  be  realised, 
would  not  the  attractive  force  of  earth — that  sub- 
tle power  by  which  It  draws  the  soul  back  to  It- 
self again  and  again — have  ceased  to  act? 
Would  not  the  cycle  of  births  and  deaths  have 
come  to  an  end?  Would  not  the  "peace  that 
passeth  all  understanding"  have  been  won? 

The  Upanlshads  are  dominated  by  this  Idea. 
The  beautiful  story  of  Nachiketas  and  Death  has 
one  burden, — that  "he  who  sees  seeming  differ- 
ence" (he  who  thinks  that  differences  are  real, 
and  cannot  see  the  One  for  the  Many)  "goes 
from  death  to  death,"  whereas  he  who  knows 
the  One,  the  "all-comprehending  One"  who  is 
"far  beyond  distinction's  power,"  escapes  from 
death  and  Inherits  eternal  life.  It  Is  desire  for 
the  things  of  earth  that  draws  man  back  to 
earth;  and  desire  for  the  things  of  earth  is  gen- 
erated by  belief  In  their  reality.  Know  that  they 
are  unreal,  and  you  will  cease  to  desire  them. 


THE  WISDOM  OF  THE  EAST      39 

Cease  to  desire  them,  and  they  will  no  longer 
draw  you  back  to  earth.  "When  all  desires  that 
linger  in  his  heart  are  driven  forth,  the  mortal 
immortal  becomes,  here  Brahman  he  verily  wins. 
When  every  knot  of  earth  is  here  unloosed,  then 
mortal  immortal  becomes."  He  who  would  es- 
cape from  death  must  turn  his  eye  away  from 
outward  things,  and  "behold  the  inner  self." 
"After  outward  longings  fools  pursue,  they  tum- 
ble into  death's  wide-spreading  net;  whereas,  the 
wise,  sure  deathlessness  conceiving,  want  nothing 
here  below  among  uncertain  things."  The  vision 
of  the  One  discredits  the  reality  of  the  Many,  and 
in  doing  so  frees  the  soul  from  bondage  to  desire, 
and  therefore  to  death  and  re-birth.  "Sole  sov- 
ereign, inner  self  of  all  creation,  who  makes  the 
one  form  manifold — the  wise  who  gaze  on  him 
within  their  self,  theirs  and  not  others  is  the  bliss 
that  aye  endures."  To  say  that  knowledge  of 
reality  subdues  desires  for  outward  things,  is  to 
say,  in  simpler  and  homelier  language,  that  rea- 
son teaches  man  self-control.  "The  man  who  is 
subject  to  reason  and  mindful,  constantly  pure, 
he  unto  that  goal  truly  reacheth  from  which  he 
is  not  born  again.  Aye,  the  man  who  hath  rea- 
son for  driver,  holding  tight  unto  impulse's  reins, 
he  reacheth  the  end  of  the  journey,  that  home  of 
the  Godhead  supreme."  But  the  man  "who  is 
the  prey  of  unreason,  unmindful,  ever  impure, 


40        THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

to  that  goal  such  a  man  never  reacheth,  he  goeth 
to  births  and  to  deaths." 

It  is  clear,  from  these  and  kindred  passages, 
that  the  thinkers  of  the  East  attached  immense 
importance  to  the  effort  and  initiative  of  the  in- 
dividual soul.  It  is  also  clear  that  the  highest 
achievement  of  the  soul  (as  they  conceived  of  it) 
was  to  know  the  real  from  the  unreal,  and  to 
translate  that  knowledge  into  feeling  and  action. 
Knowledge  of  reality  was  at  once  the  goal  of  the 
soul's  wanderings,  and  the  path  that  led  to  the 
goal;  and,  that  being  so,  the  goal  had  but  to 
become  fully  realised  in  order  to  make  a  sud- 
den and  final  end  of  the  path  that  led  to  it- 
self. 

The  stress  that  the  Sages  of  the  Upanishads 
laid  on  knowledge,  and  the  emancipative  power 
that  they  ascribed  to  it,  may  seem  strange  to  our 
Western  minds.  Our  own  ideas  about  know- 
ledge have  so  long  been  dominated  by  the  pro- 
visional assumptions  of  Physical  Science,  that 
there  is  now  only  one  kind  of  knowledge — that 
which  has  scientific  certitude  for  its  counterpart 
— to  which  we  are  willing  to  apply  the  name. 
But,  in  truth,  the  range  of  knowledge  is  as  wide 
as  that  of  Nature,  and  the  word  has  as  many 
shades  of  meaning  as  there  are  degrees  in  that 
"diameter  of  being"  which  leads  from  the  pole 
of  abstract  and  impersonal  theory  to  the  anti- 


THE  WISDOM  OF  THE  EAST      41 

pole  of  actual  oneness  with  reality.  To  know 
the  supreme  truth — that  the  Universal  Self  Is 
the  only  reality,  and  is  therefore  the  real  self 
of  each  of  us — delivers  a  man  from  the  circle  of 
life  and  death,  and  enables  him  to  enter  the  great 
Peace.  Were  the  thinkers  of  India  justified  in 
making  salvation  dependent  on  knowledge?  Our 
answer  to  this  question  will  depend  on  what  we 
mean  by  knowledge.  Such  a  truth  as  that  in 
which  the  faith  of  India  was  rooted,  may  be  ap- 
prehended In  many  ways.  Let  us  consider  four 
of  these : — 

In  the  first  place  the  truth  may  be  apprehended 
notionally,  as  the  conclusion  to  a  chain  of  meta- 
physical argument. 

In  the  second  place  it  may  be  apprehended 
emotionally ,  as  a  living  personal  conviction,  akin 
to  the  pious  Christian's  faith. 

In  the  third  place  It  may  be  apprehended  in- 
tuitively, as  the  result  of  a  sudden  illumination 
of  consciousness,  which,  while  it  lasts,  gives  a 
man  perfect  certitude,  making  him  as  sure  of 
what  he  discerns  as  he  is  of  his  own  existence. 

In  the  fourth  place  it  may  be  apprehended 
really.  A  man  may  become  conscious — clearly, 
fully,  and  finally — of  his  own  absolute  oneness 
with  the  Universal  Self.  This  is  obviously  the 
highest  imaginable  type  of  knowledge;  and  it 
is  obviously  the  ultimate  outcome  of  the  whole 
process  of  soul-growth.     It  Is  not  until  the  soul 


42         THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

has  become  divine  that  it  can  realise  Its  oneness 
with  God. 

Of  these  four  types  of  knowledge,  the  sages 
of  the  East,  In  their  quest  of  absolute  truth,  wa- 
vered between  the  first  and  the  third.  The  sec- 
ond did  not  appeal  to  them,  partly  because  the 
emotional  apprehension  of  truth  Is  generated  and 
fed  by  personal  influences  and  Is  therefore  for- 
eign to  the  Impersonal  mind  of  the  East,  and 
partly  because  the  ultimate  identity  of  the  in- 
dividual with  the  Universal  Self  Is  a  truth  too 
large  and  fundamental  to  be  apprehended  with 
anything  of  the  nature  of  personal  emotion.  The 
fourth  type  of  knowledge  was.  In  a  sense,  the  goal 
of  their  desire ;  but  they  believed  that  there  were 
short  cuts  to  it ;  and  It  was  their  very  endeavour 
to  find  those  short  cuts  that  led  some  Into  the  path 
of  metaphysical  speculation,  and  others  into  the 
path  of  mental  discipline  and  Inward  Illumina- 
tion. The  Idea  of  at  once  following  and  abridg- 
ing the  path  of  soul-growth — the  only  path  to 
the  goal  of  real  knowledge,  and  the  one  path 
which  Is  open  to  all  men — did  not  suggest  Itself 
to  them.  Yet  one  of  the  many  advantages  of 
that  path  Is  that  by  following  it  we  necessarily 
abridge  It;  and  It  was  inevitable  that,  sooner  or 
later,  some  master-mind  should  discover  and  re- 
veal to  mankind  this  too  obvious  truth. 

Meanwhile,  those  whose  mental  bias  predis- 
posed them  to  approach  the  sovereign  dogma  of 


THE  WISDOM  OF  THE  EAST      43 

Eastern  philosophy  from  a  dialectical  standpoint, 
set  to  work-  to  establish  its  truth  by  quasi-logical 
methods, — to  demonstrate  its  soundness  as  a 
theory,  to  show  that  it  was  the  last  link  in  a 
flawless  chain  of  metaphysical  argument.  But 
as,  in  the  region  of  speculative  thought,  theory 
and  counter-theory  are  always  equal  and  op- 
posite, each  in  turn  evoking  and  being  evoked 
by  the  other,  the  attempt  to  grasp  the  truth  of 
things  in  a  purely  "notional"  form  plunged  those 
who  made  it  into  a  whirlpool  of  metaphysical 
strife.  A  truth  which,  if  true  at  all,  is  the  very 
counterpart  of  supreme  reality,  and  which  there- 
fore needs,  for  its  apprehension,  an  atmosphere 
of  perfect  mental  serenity,  became  a  war-cry  in 
one  of  those  dialectical  controversies 

"Where  friend  and  foe  are  shadows  in  the  mist" 

and  inflamed  the  angry  passions  of  those 
whom  it  should  have  filled  with  inward  peace. 
Apart  from  this,  it  is  obvious  that  the  ''no- 
tional" apprehension  of  spiritual  truth  does  not 
necessarily  stimulate  the  soul  to  bring  forth  the 
fruits  of  good  living;  and  that  in  any  case  it  is 
far  beyond  the  reach  of  ordinary  men. 

Other  thinkers  who  had  no  turn  for  meta- 
physical speculation,  or  to  whom  the  atmosphere 
of  controversy  was  distasteful,  tried  to  arrive  at 
the  truth  of  things  by  another  and  a  more  direct 
path.  In  various  ways — by  mental  discipline,  by 


44        THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

ascetic  practices,  by  concentrated  meditation — 
they  tried  to  realise  that  rare  but  very  real  ex- 
perience, a  sudden  illumination  of  consciousness, 
an  experience  which,  while  it  lasts,  solves  all  rid- 
dles and  mysteries  by  making  the  inner  meaning 
of  life  as  clear  as  the  light  of  noon.  Such  a 
mode  of  seeking  truth  may  seem  to  our  West- 
ern minds  to  savour  of  madness.  But  there  is 
always  method  in  the  madness  of  the  East.  It 
is  possible  that  some  of  us,  even  in  the  West, 
have  at  one  time  or  another  experienced,  if  only 
for  a  fleeting  moment,  a  feeling  akin  to  that  of 
which  I  speak;  a  feeling  of  absolute  certitude 
with  regard  to  the  ultimate  realities  of  existence; 
a  sense  of  having  been  initiated  into  a  mighty 
mystery,  in  which  all.  the  lesser  mysteries  that  dis- 
tress and  bewilder  us  are  obviously,  and  of  inner 
necessity,  summed  up  and  solved;  a  sudden  and 
overmastering  conviction  that  the  world  has, 
after  all,  a  real  and  sufficient  meaning,  and  that 
life  is,  in  its  essence,  a  movement  towards  a  glo- 
rious goal.  Generated,  as  it  ordinarily  is,  by 
the  shock  of  an  overw^helming  sorrow  or  of  an 
overwhelming  joy, — a  shock  which  for  the  mo- 
ment benumbs  all  the  mental  faculties  of  the 
ordinary  self,  and  wakes  to  consciousness  a  higher 
and  more  inward  self, — the  feeling  too  often 
passes  away  before  one  has  had  time  to  realise 
its  presence.  But,  evanescent  though  it  be,  the 
memory  of  it  is  ineffaceable ;  and  those  who  have 


THE  WISDOM  OF  THE  EAST      45 

once  experienced  It  can  understand  the  attrac- 
tion which  that  esoteric  pathway  to  reality  had 
for  the  Indian  sage.  Nor  are  we  to  assume  off- 
hand that  the  labours  of  those  who  tried  to  find 
and  follow  the  pathway  were  wasted.  It  is  pos- 
sible and  even  probable  that,  in  the  search  for 
inward  illumination,  important  "psychical"  dis- 
coveries were  made;  that  some  at  least  among  the 
seekers  were  enabled  to  realise,  each  for  himself, 
the  presence  in  man  of  clairvoyant  senses  and  oc- 
cult powers;  and  that  by  exercising  these  they 
gained,  in  exceptional  cases,  clear  insight  into  the 
very  heart  of  their  cherished  truth.  There  is 
something  in  the  philosophy  of  the  East,  even  on 
its  more  popular  and  practical  side,  which  sug- 
gests that  those  who  expounded  It  spoke,  not 
merely  out  of  the  abundance  of  their  hearts  and 
the  conviction  of  their  minds,  but  also  out  of  a 
personal  experience,  which,  though  supernormal, 
was  by  no  means  supernatural,  and  which  was  at 
once  convincingly  actual  and  transcendently 
real.*  But  the  pathway  to  the  inward  light  is 
hard  to  find  and  easy  to  lose;  and  the  methods 
by  which  recluses  in  Indian  forests  tried  to  ac- 
quire Intuitive  knowledge  of  the  truth  of  truths, 
are  not  to  be  followed  by  ordinary  men. 

*The  preternatural  calmness  with  which  the  average 
Oriental  faces  death  is  inexplicable,  except  on  the  assnmp- 
tion  that  those  who  taught  him  his  philosophy  of  life  had, 
in  some  sort,  seen  behind  the  veil,  and  had  communicated 
to  him  something  of  the  serenity  of  their  faith. 


46        THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

How,  then,  was  that  life-giving  knowledge  to 
be  communicated  to  the  rank  and  file  of  man- 
kind? The  solution  which  this  problem  re- 
ceived was  in  keeping  with  the  esoteric  tenden- 
cy of  Indian  thought.  The  grand  ideas  in  which 
the  Soul  of  the  East  had  found  refuge  could  not 
be  communicated  as  ideas  to  the  average  man, 
who  was,  ex  hypothesis  as  incapable  of  high 
thinking  as  of  self-culture  and  mental  self-control. 
Personal  faith  such  as  that  which  the  devout 
Christian  reposes  in  Christ,  and  in  God  the  Fa- 
ther for  Christ's  sake,  was  not  expected  from 
him;  for  it  was  a  vast  conception  that  was  pre- 
sented to  him,  not  a  personality  or  a  life.  The 
truth  of  things  must  be  taught  to  him,  for  he 
could  neither  evolve  it  nor  discern  it  for  himself; 
and  though  the  notion  of  his  growing,  in  the  full- 
ness of  time,  into  oneness  with  that  living  truth 
of  things  which  is  the  counterpart  of  supreme 
reality,  was  implicit  in  the  creed  of  his  teachers, 
the  immediate  bearing  of  the  notion  had  not  yet 
been  realised.  The  truth  of  things  must  be  taught 
to  him;  but  it  was  not  to  be  taught  to  him  as 
abstract  truth.  What  then?  One  course  only 
remained.  The  truth  must  be  taught  to  him  syfn- 
hoUcally.  It  must  be  embodied  for  him  in  a  cere- 
monial system,  and  he  must  express  his  belief 
In  It  by  the  due  discharge  of  a  series  of  pre- 
scribed rites.  This  is  what  happened  in  India; 
and  the  seed  which  was  thus  sown  bore  its  in- 


THE  WISDOM  OF  THE  EAST      47 

evitable  fruit.  The  inner  meaning  of  the  sym- 
bol was  gradually  forgotten,  until  at  last  the  sym- 
bol was  mistaken  for  the  reality  to  which  it  bore 
witness.  Then  the  forces  in  the  East  which 
periodically  make  for  immobility  asserted  them- 
selves without  let  or  hindrance.  The  tyranny  of 
ceremonialism — a  tyranny  which  is  inherent  in 
the  assumption  that  the  truth  of  things  is  to  be 
taught  ab  extra — extinguished  spiritual  feeling, 
and  suspended,  if  it  did  not  wholly  destroy,  the 
inner  life  of  the  people.  "Deeper  than  ever 
plummet  sounded,"  the  Soul  of  India  "lay  (as  it 
is  lying  now)  inactive."  The  process  of  its  evo- 
lution was  arrested;  and  the  last  and  safest  path- 
way to  reality — the  pathway  of  soul-growth,  of 
the  actual  expansion  and  vivification  of  conscious- 
ness— was  closed  to  mankind. 

What  remedy  was  there  for  this  state  of 
things?  There  w^as  a  remedy;  but  it  was  too  ob- 
vious to  be  easily  found,  and  centuries  had  to 
pass  before  it  could  suggest  itself  to  Eastern 
thought.  The  symbolical,  equally  with  the  form- 
al, teaching  of  spiritual  truth,  ends  at  last  in  the 
substitution  of  machinery  for  life.  The  path 
of  salvation  lies  elsewhere.  If  you  want  the 
rank  and  file  of  mankind  to  realise  the  truth 
of  a  given  conception  of  life,  get  them  to  act — 
to  order  their  own  lives — on  the  assumption  that 
it  is  true. 


Chapter   III 

THE  PATH  OF  LIFE 

LET  us  suppose  that  a  great  prophet  ap- 
peared on  earth,  one  who  was  in 
equal  degrees  a  lover  of  his  kind  and 
a  dreamer  of  spiritual  dreams.  Let 
us  suppose  that  this  prophet  had 
drunk  at  the  pure  fountain  of  Indian  thought, 
that  he  had  accepted  and  assimilated  the  ideas 
which  found  expression  in  the  Upanishads, — the 
idea  of  the  reality  of  the  soul,  of  the  development 
of  the  individual  soul  through  a  chain  of  earth- 
lives,  of  the  consummation  of  this  process  of  de- 
velopment in  the  union  of  the  individual  with 
the  Universal  Soul  and  its  consequent  admission 
into  a  life  of  unimaginable  peace  and  bliss.  Let 
us  further  suppose  that,  when  his  heart  and  mind 
had  become  saturated  with  these  ideas,  he  became 
possessed  with  the  desire  to  communicate  them  to 
his  fellow  men.  Let  us  imagine  him  looking 
down,  from  the  standpoint  of  his  exalted  faith, 
on  the  toiling,  suffering  masses  of  mankind.  Let 
us  picture  to  ourselves  the  sorrow  that  must  have 

pierced  his  heart  when  he  saw  how  profoundly 

48 


THE  PATH  OF  LIFE  49 

ignorant  were  the  masses  of  the  great  truth 
which  he  had  made  his  own;  how  entirely  they 
were  absorbed  In  the  pursuit  of  what  was  mate- 
rial, trivial,  perishable,  unreal;  how  they  were 
living,  without  knowing  It,  In  a  world  of  shad- 
ows and  Illusions ;  how  even  religion,  which  must 
once  have  had  an  Inward  meaning,  had  become 
for  them  a  round  of  ceremonies  and  a  network 
of  formulae;  how  dense,  In  fine,  and  how  deadly 
were  the  mists  that  overhung  their  lives,  and  how 
seldom  could  those  mists  be  parted  by  any  breath 
of  spiritual  freedom,  or  pierced  by  any  ray  of 
spiritual  hope  and  joy.  Let  us  suppose  that  he 
then  looked  forward  Into  the  future,  and  saw  his 
fellow  men  returning  to  earth  again  and  again, 
and  leading  lives  as  hollow,  as  purposeless,  and 
as  joyless  as  the  lives  which  they  were  leading 
then;  the  process  of  their  soul-growth  being  so 
slow,  owing  to  their  fundamental  Ignorance  of 
reality,  that  for  a  long  sequence  of  earth-lives 
no  appreciable  progress  could  be  made.  Would 
not  the  sympathetic  sorrow  which  the  vision  of 
the  present  had  awaked  in  him,  be  Intensified  by 
his  vision  of  the  future;  and  would  not  the  long- 
ing to  help  his  fellow  men,  to  enlighten  them, 
to  lead  them  Into  the  path  of  light  and  life,  be- 
come at  last  an  absorbing  passion  which  left  no 
room  In  his  heart  for  any  other  desire? 

But  how  could  he  give  men  the  knowledge 
that  they  needed?      It  was  ignorance  of  reality 


so        THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

that  had  darkened  and  debased  their  lives.  It 
was  knowledge  which  they  were  waiting  for, 
knowledge  of  what  was  real  and  what  was  true. 
How  could  he  give  them  this  most  rare  and  most 
precious  of  all  gifts?  How  could  he  transform 
their  sense  of  reality,  and  quicken  and  purify  their 
perception  of  truth?  Philosophical  knowledge 
of  the  truth  of  things  Is,  for  obvious  reasons,  be- 
yond the  reach  of  the  masses.  The  average  man 
has  no  turn  for  metaphysical  speculation,  and 
the  worst  service  that  one  can  render  him  is  to 
tempt  him  to  Indulge  in  It;  for  In  the  atmosphere 
of  verbal  controversy  reality  becomes  an  abstrac- 
tion, truth  becomes  a  formula,  while  love,  which 
Is  the  real  unsealer  of  all  spiritual  secrets,  inevi- 
tably withers  and  dies.  The  intuitive  apprehen- 
sion of  the  truth  of  things  Is  equally,  and  for 
equally  obvious  reasons,  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
masses.  The  ^'psychical"  faculties,  which  gener- 
ate that  rare  but  vividly  real  type  of  knowledge, 
though  potentially  present  in  all  miCn,  are  devel- 
oped in  an  exceedingly  small  minority;  and  the 
premature  attempt  to  develop  them  would  end  in 
hysteria  being  mistaken  for  inspiration,  and  hal- 
lucination for  divine  truth.  The  emotional  ap- 
prehension of  the  truth  of  things  may  seem  to  be 
within  the  reach  of  ordinary  men.  In  reality  It 
also  is  reserved  for  a  chosen  few;  for  it  Is  only 
in  the  genuinely  poetic  nature  that  it  can  main- 
tain Its  equable  heat  and  pristine  purity.    In  low- 


THE  PATH  OF  LIFE  51 

er  natures  It  burns  Itself  away  In  the  pitchy  flames 
of  undisciplined  sentiment,  and  dies  out  at  last 
into  formalism,  dogmatism,  and  other  "bodies  of 
death."  Moreover,  the  teacher  who  appeals  to 
the  spiritual  emotion  of  his  disciples,  and  who 
thereby  enters  into  emotional  relations  with  them, 
and  through  them  with  their  disciples  and  spir- 
itual descendants,  runs  one  serious  risk.  The 
chances  are  that,  sooner  or  later,  those  who  come 
under  his  Influence,  without  having  known  him  in 
the  flesh,  and  who  are  therefore  free  to  construct 
imaginary  pictures  of  his  life  and  person,  will 
transfer  to  his  personality  the  devotion  which 
he  wished  them  to  give  to  his  ideas,  and  will  end 
by  regarding  his  Inevitable  limitations,  or  rather 
the  limitations  of  their  own  imagination — for  by 
this  time  the  teacher  will  have  become  a  legend- 
ary hero — as  the  very  boundaries  of  reality. 

There  remains  what  I  have  elsewhere  called 
the  real  apprehension  of  ultimate  truth.  This, 
and  this  alone,  Is  within  the  reach  of  all  men. 
The  actual  expansion  of  the  soul,  in  response  to 
the  forces  in  Nature  that  are  making  for  its  de- 
velopment, will  give  men,  little  by  little,  the 
knowledge  that  they  need;  for  as  the  soul  ex- 
pands, as  it  increases  in  wisdom  and  stature,  Its 
consciousness  will  enlarge  its  horizon.  Its  vision 
will  become  clearer  and  deeper,  and  its  sense  of 
proportion  will  be  transformed.  When  the 
knowledge  of  reality  has  been  finally  won,  the 


52        THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

attractive  forces  of  earth,  which  will  then  be 
felt  to  be  wholly  illusory,  will  have  ceased  to 
act,  and  the  end  of  the  soul's  pilgrimage  will  be 
at  hand.  The  best  service,  then,  that  a  man  can 
render  to  his  fellow  men  is  to  persuade  them  to 
enter  the  path  of  soul-growth.  Or  rather — for 
they  entered  it  long  ago — to  follow  it,  no  longer 
blindly  and  instinctively,  but  deliberately  and 
of  their  own  free  will;  and,  by  thus  consciously 
co-operating  with  the  expansive  forces  of  Na- 
ture, to  shorten  the  path  of  soul-growth,  and  to 
hasten  the  advent  of  its  glorious  goal. 

That  our  prophet,  looking  at  things  from  the 
s^mdpoint  of  his  own  higher  knowledge,  should 
desire  to  render  this  service  to  his  fellow  men, 
may  be  taken  for  granted.  But  how  should  he 
persuade  men  that  escape  from  the  cycle  of  earth- 
lives  was  intrinsically  desirable,  that  the  path 
of  soul-growth  was  the  path  of  real  life,  that  the 
goal  to  which  it  would  lead  them  was  worthy 
of  their  highest  aspiration  and  their  most  stren- 
uous endeavour?  If  their  ignorance  of  reality 
was  as  dense  as  it  seemed  to  be,  to  what  faculty 
should  he  appeal  and  on  what  ground  of  ad- 
mitted truth  should  he  take  his  stand?  The  re- 
lation between  knowledge  and  action,  in  the 
sphere  of  moral  life,  presents  a  problem  which 
is  insoluble,  except  on  one  hypothesis.  Our  diffi- 
culty is  that  for  right  action  we  need  right  know- 
ledge; that  for  right  knowledge  we  need  inward 


THE  PATH  OF  LIFE  53 

enlightenment;  that  for  inward  enlightenment 
we  need  the  transforming  influence  of  a  life  of 
right  action.  There  is  but  one  way  of  escape 
from  this  seemingly  vicious  circle.  Apply  the  law 
of  development  to  the  inward  life  of  the  soul; 
and  it  will  become  clear  that  the  sense  of  reality, 
like  every  other  sense  and  power,  exists  in  embryo 
in  each  individual  man.  It  is  to  this  embryonic 
sense  of  reality  that  our  prophet  would  make 
his  appeal.  In  doing  so,  he  would  provide  both 
for  the  development  of  that  sense,  and  for  the 
concurrent  development  in  the  soul  of  his  dis- 
ciple of  the  germ  of  his  own  teaching.  For  the 
sense  of  reality,  like  every  other  sense  and  power, 
grows  by  being  exercised;  and  if  it  is  to  be  exer- 
cised, it  must  be  appealed  to  and  called  upon  to 
exert  itself.  It  follows  that,  in  appealing  to  a 
man's  sense  of  reality,  one  helps  it  to  grow;  and 
it  follows  that,  in  helping  the  sense  to  grow,  one 
trains  it  to  understand  and  respond  to  the  appeal 
that  is  made  to  it. 

We  may  conjecture,  then,  that  the  teacher  who 
wished  to  lead  men  to  the  knowledge  of  reality 
would  begin  by  assuming  that  the  sense  of  reality 
was  latent  in  every  heart.  He  would  say  to  them, 
"Does  this  earth-life  really  satisfy  you?  Cannot 
you  see  for  yourselves  that  in  the  last  resort  it 
is  hollow  and  unreal?  Do  the  prizes  for  which 
you  strive  content  you  when  you  have  won  them  ? 
Do  they  not  crumble   into   dust   as  you   grasp 


54        THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

them?  Everything  that  earth  can  give  you — 
health,  wealth,  pleasure,  power,  success,  fame — 
proves  to  be  either  transient  or  Illusory.  Health 
lasts  a  few  years,  and  Is  then  undermined  by  dis- 
ease and  decay.  Wealth  has  neither  meaning  nor 
value  except  so  far  as  It  enables  you  to  buy 
pleasure,  power,  success,  and  fame.  Pleasure 
palls  upon  you,  and  at  last  ceases  to  please.  Or, 
if  it  does  continue  to  please,  age  and  disease  for- 
bid you  to  enjoy  it.  Power  brings  with  it  a 
weight  of  care  and  responsibility.  Success  has 
its  counterpart  in  failure,  for 

'Things  won  are  done:  joy's  soul  lies  in  the  doing.' 

Fame  Is 

'Enjoyed  no  sooner  but  despised  straight.' 

Look  down  the  vista  of  the  years.  If  you 
continue  to  desire  the  things  of  earth,  you  will  re- 
turn to  earth,  drawn  by  the  influences  that  now 
attract  you,  again  and  again.  Does  this  pros- 
pect content  you  ?  Has  your  experience  of  earth 
been  so  happy  that  you  wish  to  renew  It  again 
and  again?  Is  It  not  true  that  the  earth-life 
brings  real  happiness  to  those  only  who  have 
found  inward  peace?  And  is  it  not  true  that 
inward  peace,  though  It  can  transfigure  earth 
and  make  it  spiritual  and  beautiful,  is  won  by 
detachment  from  earth,  not  by  devotion  to  it? 
This  Inward  peace.  In  enjoying  which  you  drink 
the  only  draught  of  real  happiness  that  the  earth- 


THE  PATH  OF  LIFE  55 

life  can  offer  you,  Is  a  faint  foretaste  of  what  is 
in  store  for  the  soul  when  all  its  wanderings  are 
over.  Beyond  all  earth-lives  a  goal  awaits  you — 
a  goal  which  crowns  and  completes  the  process 
of  the  soul's  evolution — the  goal  of  deep,  perfect, 
inexhaustible  bliss.  This  reward  will  be  yours 
when  you  have  broken  the  last  of  the  ties  by 
which  earth  attracts  you,  and  in  doing  so  have  es- 
caped, once  and  for  ever,  from  'the  whirlpool  of 
rebirth.'  " 

If  there  was  anything  In  the  heart  of  man 
which  could  respond  to  this  appeal,  the  seed  of 
the  prophet's  teaching  w^ould  have  been  safely 
sown.  His  philosophy  would  have  taught  him 
that  his  appeal  would  not  be  made  in  vain.  The 
germ  of  divine  wisdom  is  implicit  in  the  germ 
of  soul-life;  and  the  teacher  who  took  for  grant- 
ed that  men  could  see  for  themselves  the  inner 
truth  of  things,  would  find  that  the  insight  with 
which  he  credited  them  would  evolve  Itself,  little 
by  little,  in  response  to  his  appeal.  But,  be  it 
carefully  observed,  he  would  make  his  appeal  to 
the  people  as  simple  and  direct  as  possible.  He 
would  not  attempt  to  base  it  on  metaphysical 
or  theological  grounds.  He  would  not  employ 
arguments  which  appeal  to  the  intellectual  facul- 
ties only,  for  he  would  know  that  the  people 
have  no  capacity  for  abstract  speculation,  and  he 
would  infer  from  this  that  the  more  cogent  a 
metaphysical  or  a  theological  argument  might 


SG        THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

seem  to  be,  when  addressed  to  popular  thought, 
the  more  certain  it  would  be  to  delude  and  mis- 
lead. The  reticence  which  he  would  thus  im- 
pose upon  himself  might  carry  him  very  far,  but 
he  would  respect  all  its  obligations.  He  would 
make  no  attempt  to  lead  the  undev^eloped  minds 
of  his  hearers  into  the  presence  of  what  was  ul- 
timate, either  in  themselves  or  in  the  world  at 
large.  He  would  say  nothing  to  them  about  the 
"Ego,"  nothing  about  God.  He  would  put  no 
truth  before  them  which  was  not  in  some  measure 
self-evident.  To  say  that  life,  as  Ave  know  it,  is 
full  of  pain,  sorrow,  and  disappointment;  that  its 
pleasures  are  transitory  and  delusive;  that  its 
prizes  are  intrinsically  worthless;  that  the  inward 
peace  which  moral  goodness  generates  is  the  only 
real  happiness ;  and  that  to  escape  into  a  world  of 
inward  peace  is,  therefore,  the  highest  imagina- 
ble bliss ; — to  advance  such  arguments  as  these  is 
to  appeal  to  an  inward  sense  which  exists  po- 
tentially in  all  men.  But  to  go  beyond  the  lim.- 
its  of  those  simple  yet  profound  conceptions, 
would  be  to  lead  men  into  a  region  of  doubt,  be- 
wilderment, and  wordy  strife. 

Having  won  from  men  some  measure  of  as- 
sent to  the  self-evident  truths  which  he  had  set 
before  them,  the  teacher  would  proceed  to  draw 
for  them  the  practical  inferences  from  his  pre- 
mises.  He  would  tell  them  that  there  was  a  path, 


THE  PATH  OF  LIFE  57 

by  following  which  they  would  become  gradually 
detached  from  earth  and  Its  shadows  and  delu- 
sions, and  brought  within  sight  of  their  spiritual 
goal;  and  he  would  then  teach  them  how  to  en- 
ter that  path  and  walk  in  it.  The  path  of  de- 
liverance  is  the  path  of  soul-growth.  As  the 
soul  grows,  and  its  perceptive  faculties  widen  and 
deepen,  the  unreality  of  the  earth-life  will  become 
gradually  apparent ;  and  when  this  has  been  fully 
realised,  the  last  chain  that  binds  the  soul  to 
earth  will  snap  of  its  own  accord,  and  deliver- 
ance will  be  won.  The  one  thing  needful,  then, 
the  one  thing  which  every  man  ought  to  do  and 
which  any  man  can  do,  is  so  to  live  as  to  make 
his  soul  grow.  How  is  this  to  be  done?  We 
need  not  go  far  for  an  answer  to  this  question. 
In  the  first  place,  all  the  influences  which  direct- 
ly thwart  the  growth  of  the  soul  must  be  sub- 
dued and  disarmed.  The  lusts  and  passions  of 
the  animal  self;  the  desires  and  ambitions,  the 
moods  and  impulses  that  are  generated  by  petty 
egoism;  the  tendencies,  w-hatever  they  may  be, 
that  make  for  the  contraction  of  the  life  of  the 
soul,  for  the  restriction  of  its  vital  energies  to  the 
plane  of  the  low^er  self; — all  these  must,  for  ob- 
vious reasons,  be  kept  under  due  control.  To 
allow  the  soul  to  identify  itself  with  any  of 
the  lower  selves  which  egoism  seeks  to  magnify, 
would  be  fatal  to  its  spiritual  progress.  Also, 
since  it  is  of  the  essence  of  the  new  scheme  of 


58        THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

life  to  entrust  to  each  man  In  turn  the  duty  of 
ordering  his  own  goings,  it  is  clear  that  if  any 
carnal  or  semi-carnal  desire  or  passion  were  al- 
lowed to  seize  the  helm  of  the  will,  the  voyaging 
soul  would  make  early  shipwreck. 

This  is  the  negative  side  of  soul-growth.  The 
positive  side  Is  of  even  greater  Importance.  If 
the  soul  is  to  grow,  It  must  go  out  of  itself  into 
some  sphere  of  being  which  seems  for  the  mo- 
ment to  lie  beyond  its  own.  Now  there  are  many 
avenues  of  escape  from  the  ordinary  self;  and 
each  of  these  helps.  In  Its  own  way,  to  foster  the 
growth  of  the  soul.  But  there  Is  one  and  one 
only  which  is  open  to  all  men, — the  avenue  of 
sympathy,  of  living  or  beginning  to  live  In  the 
lives  of  other  persons  and  other  things.  In 
teaching  men  to  live  In  the  lives  of  others, 
our  moralist  would  be  content  to  lead  them 
on  from  strength  to  strength,  and  would 
make  no  attempt  to  initiate  them,  while  they 
were  still  In  pupilage,  into  the  esoteric  mys- 
tery of  an  all-embracing,  all-consuming  love.  He 
would  take  for  granted  that  the  germ  of  sym- 
pathy w^as  in  every  heart,  and  that  the  germ 
would  evolve  Itself,  under  the  stress  of  the  nat- 
ural forces  that  make  for  the  expansion  of  the 
soul,  when  once  the  adverse  influences  that  hin- 
dered its  outgrowth  had  been  removed  or,  at 
least,  reduced  to  Inaction.  What  hinders  the 
outgrowth  of  sympathy  is,  not  the  lust  of  cruelty 


THE  PATH  OF  LIFE  59 

(for  that  Is  a  rare  and  artificial  by-product  of 
human  development),  but  the  reckless  egoism 
which  prompts  the  strong,  In  the  general  strug- 
gle for  existence,  to  trample  down  the  weak.  The 
Impulse — half  fear,  half  anger — which  makes  a 
man  strike  In  self-defence;  the  "Instinct  to  live'* 
which  makes  him  ready  to  sacrifice  life  In  other 
beings  In  order  that  he  may  preserve  It  In  him- 
self; the  desire  for  material  comfort  and  well- 
being,  which  makes  him  reckless  of  the  comfort 
and  well-being  of  others; — these  tendencies  are 
not  in  themselves  Incompatible  with  sympathy, 
though  they  may.  If  uncontrolled,  develop  Into 
darker  and  deadlier  passions,  and  generate  an 
egoism  more  callous  and  more  self-seeking  than 
that  from  which  they  spring.  But  the  scheme 
of  life  which  we  are  considering  has  provided 
for  all  the  animal  and  semi-animal  passions  be- 
ing placed  under  due  control;  and  he  who  had 
laid  this  teaching  to  heart  would  be  ready  to  re- 
ceive the  further  lesson,  that  he  ought  to  refrain 
from  wanton  unkindness,  first  to  his  fellow-men, 
and  then  to  all  other  living  things.  In  other 
words,  though  he  would  be  left  free  to  take 
whatever  steps  might  prove  to  be  necessary  for 
the  protection  and  preservation  of  his  life,  he 
would  be  taught  that  no  wound  was  to  be  wan- 
tonly inflicted,  no  life  to  be  recklessly  destroyed; 
and  that,  speaking  generally,  each  man  in  turn 
was  to  make  his  pilgrimage  on  earth  as  free  as 


6o        THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

might  be  possible  from  harm  and  offence  to 
others.  Under  the  Influence  of  this  teaching, 
gentleness,  kindness,  and  tolerance  would  grad- 
ually Impregnate  the  atmosphere  of  man's  daily 
life;  and  In  that  atmosphere  the  germ  of  sym- 
pathy would  make  strong  and  steady  growth. 

To  trace  the  stages  In  the  growth  of  that  soul- 
expanding  germ  would  be  beside  my  present  pur- 
pose. That  the  destiny  of  sympathy  is  to  trans- 
form Itself  Into  the  passion  of  spiritual  love, 
can  scarcely  be  doubted.  It  Is  of  the  essence  of 
the  Individual  life  to  seek  to  outgrow  itself,  to 
seek  to  mingle  Itself  with  other  lives  on  its  way 
to  that  Universal  life  which  is  Its  own  true  self  ; 
and  when  once  the  Individual  life  has  begun  to 
lose  Itself  in  the  lives  of  others,  a  process  has  been 
initiated,  of  which  absorption  into  the  Universal 
life — itself  the  highest  Imaginable  development 
of  love — Is  the  natural  and  necessary  consum- 
mation. But  one  who  was  addressing  himself 
to  the  rank  and  file  of  mankind,  and  was  there- 
fore taking  thought  for  the  earlier  stages  of 
soul-growth,  would  be  careful  to  disabuse  the 
minds  of  his  disciples  of  the  idea  that  there  was 
any  short  cut  to  spiritual  perfection.  The  critic 
who  looks  at  things  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
"enthusiasm  of  humanity,"  may  possibly  con- 
demn the  gospel  of  sympathy  as  a  cold  and  pallid 
substitute  for  the  gospel  of  love ;  but  the  moralist 
who  had  taken  upon  himself  to  lead  the  average 


THE  PATH  OF  LIFE  6i 

man  into  the  path  of  life,  would  not  allow  this 
criticism  to  deflect  him  from  his  purpose.  Know- 
ing that  in  the  earlier  stages  of  soul-growth  self- 
control  was  the  one  thing  needful,  and  that  un- 
til the  self-seeking  desires  had  been  mastered 
the  outgrowth  of  the  soul-expanding  desires  was 
not  to  be  looked  for;  and  knowing  further  that 
sympathy,  which  has  much  in  common  with  self- 
control,  and  follows  naturally  from  it,  would 
gradually  prepare  the  way  for  the  outgrowth  of 
spiritual  love  and  the  desires  that  are  akin  to  it, 
or  rather  would  itself,  in  the  natural  course  of 
things,  develop  into  these; — knowing  this,  the 
idealistic  moralist  would  be  content  that  men 
should  aim  in  the  first  Instance  at  the  skyline 
which  was  visible  to  them,  and  that  the  heights 
Avhich  this  hid  from  view  should  unfold  them- 
selves, little  by  little,  as  the  soul  surmounted 
the  foothills  of  its  life.  Herein  he  would  show 
his  practical  wisdom,  and  make  good  his  claim 
to  be  a  teacher  of  mankind.  The  premature 
development  of  the  ''enthusiasm  of  humanity" 
and  other  spiritual  passions  might  well  have 
fatal  consequences;  for  experience  has  amply 
proved  that  the  lower  desires  and  impulses  are 
all  too  ready  to  masquerade  as  the  higher, — lust, 
for  example,  as  love,  race-hatred  as  patriotism, 
religious  intolerance  as  spiritual  devotion,  ego- 
ism as  self-respect,  censoriousness  and  unchari- 
tableness  as  moral  zeal.     The  truth  is  that  in 


6i        THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

ordinary  men  the  passion  of  love  necessarily 
directs  Itself  towards  what  Is  Individual  and 
quasi-concrete,  whereas  sympathy,  just  because 
It  Is  a  colder  and  paler  sentiment,  has  an  Im- 
measurably wider  and  more  abstract  range. 
There  are  Indeed  exceptional  natures  which  can 
sublimate  personal  Into  Impersonal  love;  but, 
speaking  generally,  If  the  Impersonal  passion  of 
universal  love  Is  to  be  our  goal,  the  safer  path 
to  It, — at  any  rate  In  the  earlier  stages  of  man's 
development, — will  be  that  of  the  Impersonal 
sentiment  of  sympathy  rather  than  the  personal 
passion  of  love. 

The  master  principle,  that  deliverance  from 
the  Illusions  of  earth  Is  to  be  won  by  self-con- 
trol and  sympathy,  would  be  embodied  In  a  sim- 
ple "Law."  It  Is  In  this  form,  and  no  other, 
that  the  new  philosophy  of  life  would  have  to 
be  presented  to  the  rank  and  file  of  mankind.  It 
may  be  possible  for  ordinary  men  to  see  for 
themselves  that  escape  from  the  "whirlpool  of 
rebirth"  Into  the  calm  haven  of  Inward  peace 
and  spiritual  bliss,  Is  a  desirable  end;  but  the 
teacher  who  should  try  to  explain  to  them  that 
this  end  was  to  be  compassed  by  the  practice 
of  self-control  and  the  cultivation  of  sympathy, 
would  find  that  his  words  had  missed  their  mark. 
The  average  man  has  no  turn  for  abstract  think- 
ing; and  to  ask  him  to  trace  the  logical  connec- 


THE  PATH  OF  LIFE  63 

tion  between  this  or  that  moral  principle  and  the 
paramount  end  of  life,  is  to  set  him  a  task  beyond 
his  power.  What  is  needed  for  his  edification 
is  to  give  him  a  few  simple  moral  rules,  and  to 
tell  him  that  these,  If  faithfully  followed,  will 
lead  him  to  the  goal  that  he  desires  to  reach. 

But  the  rules  that  are  given  him  must  be  sim- 
ple and  few.  In  other  words,  they  must  be  the 
axiomata  media  of  morality,  the  broad  rules  of 
life  which  mediate  between  the  master  princi- 
ples of  moral  action  and  those  meticulous  details 
into  which  the  mind  that  values  rules  for  their 
own  sake  is  so  ready  to  descend.  The  force  and 
authority  of  each  rule  must  be  self-evident.  The 
teacher  must  be  able  to  say  to  his  disciples :  ''Can- 
not you  see  for  yourselves  that  this  course  of  ac- 
tion Is  better  than  that, — that  continence  (let  us 
say)  Is  better  than  incontinence,  sobriety  than 
Intemperance,  kindness  than  cruelty,  gentleness 
than  violence?"  In  making  this  appeal  to  his 
disciples  he  would  at  once  exercise  and  cultivate 
their  spiritual  Intelligence  and  their  power  of 
moral  choice.  When  we  say  that  the  force  and 
authority  of  the  axiomata  media  of  morality  are 
self-evident,  we  imply  that  they  stand  very  near 
to  the  moral  principles  which  are  behind  them, 
so  near  that.  In  yielding  to  their  attractive  force, 
the  soul  Is  brought  Into  subconscious  contact  with 
the  truth  and  beauty  of  the  teacher's  philosophy 
of  life,    We  imply,  in  other  words,  that  the  sim- 


64         THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

pic  rules  of  a  sane  morality  are  In  themselves 
a  source  of  inward  illumination,  and  that  the  soul 
which  disregards  them  sins,  in  some  sort, 
"against  light  and  knowledge,"  and  misuses  its 
power  of  choice. 

To  this  proposition  there  are  corollaries  which 
are  of  profound  importance.  The  growth  of 
the  soul,  and  its  consequent  absorption  into  it- 
self of  forces  and  Influences  which  seem  to  be 
external  to  Its  life,  are  necessarily  accompanied 
by  the  diminution  of  outward  pressure  and  the 
consequent  growth  of  freedom;  and  It  stands  to 
reason  that,  when  the  Individual  has  become  one 
with  the  Universal  Self,  so  that  all  forces  and  all 
Influences  are  gathered  at  last  within  the  compass 
of  Its  conscious  life,  absolute  freedom  will  have 
been  w^on.  It  follov/s  that  freedom  Is  the  very 
counterpart  of  spiritual  life.  Now  freedom  is 
of  two  kinds, — freedom  to  know  and  freedom  to 
do;  and  these  two  are  In  the  last  resort  one.  The 
teacher  who  would  lead  men  Into  the  path  of 
life  must  assume  at  the  outset  that  man  is  free, 
potentially  If  not  actually, — free  both  to  discern 
good  from  evil  and  to  make  his  choice  between 
the  two ;  and  he  must  so  shape  his  teaching  that 
this  dual  faculty  shall  be  constantly  exercised, 
and  to  that  extent  encouraged  to  grow.  It  Is 
because  the  teacher  who  limits  himself,  when 
framing  his  Law,  to  a  few  axioniata  media  and 
refuses  to  go  further  Into  detail,  makes  ample 


THE  PATH  OF  LIFE  65 

provision,  first  for  the  recognition  and  then  for 
the  culture  of  spiritual  freedom, — it  is  for  this, 
if  for  no  other  reason,  that  he  must  take  rank 
as  the  wisest  of  Lawgivers. 

The  superiority  of  a  simple  to  an  elaborate 
Code  of  Law,  in  respect  of  the  services  that  they 
respectively  render  to  the  cause  of  spiritual  free- 
dom, may  be  looked  at  from  another  point  of 
view.  The  connection  between  the  broader  rules 
of  conduct  and  the  goal  by  which  obedience  to 
those  rules  is  at  last  to  be  rewarded,  though  pos- 
sibly not  directly  traceable  by  the  man  of  average 
insight  and  Intelligence,  is  always  felt  by  him  to 
be  natural  and  real.  In  an  elaborate  Code  of 
Law,  on  the  other  hand,  nine-tenths  of  the  rules 
that  men  are  directed  to  obey  are  so  unreasonable 
and  so  unattractive  that  the  man  who  obeys 
them  can  neither  discern  their  moral  significance, 
nor  see  that  there  is  any  natural  connection  be- 
tween his  obedience  and  his  promised  goal.  The 
consequence  is  that  he  gets  to  regard  both  the 
law  and  its  reward  as  wholly  alien  from  his  own 
imvard  life.  He  is  to  obey  such  and  such  rules 
of  conduct  because  he  is  told  to  obey  them,  and 
for  no  other  reason;  and  if,  and  so  far  as,  he  is 
obedient  to  them,  he  is  to  reap  such  and  such  re- 
wards, not  because  there  is  any  natural  connec- 
tion between  his  conduct  and  its  recompense,  but 
because  the  irresponsible  despot  who  framed  the 
Code  of  Law  chose,  for  reasons  of  his  own,  to 


66        THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

attach  certain  prizes  to  obedience,  and  certain 
penalties  to  rebellion.  When  such  a  conception  of 
life  and  duty  has  fully  established  Itself,  spirit- 
ual freedom  has  been  mortally  wounded,  and  the 
soul  has  entered  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of 
death.  Against  this  danger  the  teacher  who  re- 
garded soul-growth  as  both  the  way  and  the 
end  of  "salvation,"  would  be  ever  on  his  guard. 
Not  only  would  he  make  his  moral  rules  as  few, 
as  simple,  and  as  broad  as  possible,  but  he  would 
also  Impress  upon  his  disciples  that  by  obeying 
those  rules,  by  following  the  path  which  they 
marked  out  for  them,  they  would,  in  the  natural 
course  of  things,  arrive  In  due  season  at  the  prom- 
ised goal  of  Inward  peace  and  bliss; — a  goal 
which  Is  so  vitally  connected  with  the  way  of  liv- 
ing that  leads  up  to  it,  that  those  who  seek  It 
enjoy  it  in  some  measure  before  they  reach  It, 
its  foreglow — "the  peace  which  passeth  all  un- 
derstanding"— falling  In  ever  deepening  splen- 
dour on  each  successive  stage  In  the  path  of  life. 
He  would  therefore  warn  his  disciples  against 
whatever  scheme  of  conduct  might  tend  to  substi- 
tute a  mechanical  for  a  spiritual,  a  supernatural 
for  a  natural,  conception  of  life  and  duty.  Thus 
he  would  teach  them  that  "sacrifices  and  burnt 
offerings"  could  profit  them  nothing;  that  cere- 
monial observances  had  no  Intrinsic  meaning  or 
value ;  that  obedience  to  rules,  for  the  mere  sake 
of  obedience,  far  from  strengthening  their  souls, 


THE  PATH  OF  LIFE  67 

would  entangle  them  at  last  In  the  clinging  mesh- 
es of  the  infinitesimal.  He  would  teach  them, 
further,  that  actions  produce  their  natural  and 
necessary  consequences,  and  that  the  most  vital 
of  these  is  the  reaction  of  what  is  done  on  the 
soul  of  the  doer.  Is  the  soul  really  growing? 
Are  the  earth-ties  being  strengthened  or  weak- 
ened? These  are  the  questions  which  men  must 
learn  to  ask  themselves,  and  to  answer.  It  is  by 
the  strictly  natural  process  of  growth,  and  in  no 
other  way,  that  the  soul  is  to  be  ''saved  alive"; 
and  the  idealistic  teacher  would  urge  his  disciples 
to  repudiate  the  authority  of  his  own  law,  if  it 
set  any  other  path  or  any  other  Ideal  than  that 
of  soul-growth  before  them. 

Above  all — and  this  Is  perhaps  "the  conclu- 
sion of  the  whole  matter" — the  teacher  who 
preached  the  gospel  of  soul-growth  would  Im- 
press upon  his  disciples  that  each  of  them  must 
work  out  his  salvation  for  himself;  that  he  must 
take  the  conduct  of  his  life  into  his  own  hands; 
that  he  must  enlist  his  will-power  on  the  side  of 
those  natural  forces  which  are  ever  making  for 
the  expansion  of  his  life;  that  his  will-power 
was  in  fact  the  last  and  the  highest  of  those 
natural  forces;  that  Its  outgrowth  had  come, 
gradually  and  naturally,  with  the  outgrowth  of 
his  soul;  that  whatever  tended  to  arrest  its 
growth  tended  also,  and  In  an  equal  degree,  to  ar- 
rest the  growth  of  his  soul;  that  In  this,  as  in 


68         THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

other  matters,  the  end  of  life  must  control  the 
way,  and  the  way  foreshadow  the  end;  that  in 
this,  as  in  other  matters,  a  man  must  achieve  his 
ideal  by  applying  it  to  the  solution  of  his  practical 
problems,  and  giving  expression  to  it  in  the  daily 
round  of  his  life. 


Chapter  IV 

THE  TEACHING  OF  BUDDHA 

IN  the  Sixth  Century  before  the  birth  of 
Christ,  India,  which  had  long  been  seeth- 
ing and  fermenting  with  spiritual 
thought,  gave  to  the  world  a  great  teach- 
er. The  son  of  an  Indian  chieftain, 
Gaudama  Buddha*  strove  for  many  years  to  find 
that  inward  illumination  on  "great  matters," 
which  was  the  cherished  dream  of  every  serious 
thinker  in  that  remarkable  era.  After  having 
followed,  to  no  purpose,  the  paths  of  metaphys- 
ical speculation,  of  mental  discipline,  and  of 
ascetic  rigour,  he  reaped  on  one  memorable  night 
the  fruit  of  his  prolonged  spiritual  effort,  the 

*Gaudama  (or  Gotama),  the  Enlightened  One.  I  ought, 
in  strictness,  to  call  this  book  "The  Creed  of  Gaudama  Bud- 
dha," just  as  I  ought  to  have  called  my  study  of  Christ's 
ideas  "The  Creed  of  Jesus  Christ."  My  reason  for  speaking 
of  the  Founder  of  Buddhism  as  Buddha  is  the  same  as  my 
reason  for  speaking  of  the  Founder  of  Christianity  as  Christ. 
It  happens  that  in  each  case  the  religion  is  called  after  the 
title  rather  than  the  name  of  its  Founder,  with  the  result 
that  the  title  has  gradually  acquired  the  force  and  the  asso- 
ciation of  a  familiar  name.  As  Jesus,  the  Christ  or 
Anointed  One,  is  commonly  spoken  of  as  Christ,  so 
Gaudama.  the  Buddha  or  Enlightened  One,  is  commonly 
spoken  of,  and  may,  without  impropriety,  be  spoken  of,  as 
Buddha. 

69 


70        THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

truth  of  things  being  of  a  sudden  so  clearly  re- 
vealed to  him  that  thenceforth  he  never  swerved 
for  a  moment  from  devotion  to  his  creed  and  to 
the  mission  that  It  Imposed  upon  him. 

What  was  the  creed  of  Buddha?  What  did 
he  teach  mankind,  and  what  were  the  dominant 
Ideas  on  which  he  based  his  teaching?  It  Is, 
I  think,  at  once  easier  and  more  difficult  to  In- 
terpret the  creed  of  Buddha  than  that  of  Christ. 
Unquestionably  easier,  within  certain  clearly  de- 
fined limits.  Perhaps  more  difficult,  when  once 
those  limits  have  been  passed. 

That  the  moral  teaching  of  Buddha  was  of 
such  and  such  a  character,  that  the  carefully  elab- 
orated scheme  of  life  which  has  always  been  at- 
tributed to  him  was  really  his,  can  scarcely  be 
doubted.  On  this  point  It  will  suffice  If  I  cite  the 
authority  of  two  well-known  Buddhist  scholars. 
"When  It  Is  recollected,"  says  Dr.  Rhys  Davids, 
"that  Gaudama  Buddha  did  not  leave  behind 
him  a  number  of  deeply  simple  sayings,  from 
which  his  followers  subsequently  built  up  a  sys- 
tem or  systems  of  their  own,  but  had  himself 
thoroughly  elaborated  his  doctrine,  partly  as  to 
details,  after,  but  In  Its  fundamental  points  even 
before,  his  mission  began;  that  during  his  long 
career  as  teacher,  he  had  ample  time  to  repeat  the 
principles  and  the  details  of  the  system  over  and 
over  again  to  his  disciples,  and  to  test  their 
knowledge  of  it;  and  finally  that  his  leading  dis- 


THE  TEACHING  OF  BUDDHA      7 1 

ciples  were,  like  himself,  accustomed  to  the  sub- 
tlest metaphysical  distinctions,  and  trained  to  that 
wonderful  command  of  memory  which  Indian  as- 
cetics then  possessed;  when  these  facts  are  re- 
called to  mind,  It  will  be  seen  that  much  more  re- 
liance may  reasonably  be  placed  upon  the  doctri- 
nal parts  of  the  Buddhist  Scriptures  than  upon 
correspondingly  late  records  of  other  religions." 
Dr.  Oldenberg  speaks  to  the  same  general 
effect.  ''On  the  whole  we  shall  be  au- 
thorised to  refer  to  Buddha  himself  the  most 
essential  trains  of  thought  which  we  find 
recorded  in  the  Sacred  Texts,  and  in  many  cases 
It  is  probably  not  too  much  to  believe  that 
the  very  words  In  which  the  ascetic  of  the  Sakya 
house  couched  his  gospel  of  deliverance,  have 
come  down  to  us  as  they  fell  from  his  lips.  We 
find  that  throughout  the  vast  complex  of  ancient 
Buddhist  literature  which  has  been  collected,  cer- 
tain mottoes  and  formulas,  the  expression  of 
Buddhist  convictions  upon  some  of  the  weight- 
iest problems  of  religious  thought,  are  expressed 
over  and  over  again  in  a  standard  form  adopted 
once  for  all.  Why  may  not  these  be  words  which 
have  received  their  currency  from  the  founder 
of  Buddhism,  which  had  been  spoken  by  him  hun- 
dreds and  thousands  of  times  throughout  his  long 
life  devoted  to  teaching?"  Whatever  else  Bud- 
dha may  have  been,  he  was  a  serious  and  sys- 
tematic teacher  who  was  deeply  impressed  with 


72         THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

the  belief  that  it  was  his  mission  to  lead  men  into 
the  path  of  salvation, — a  broad  path,  as  he  con- 
ceived of  it,  but  clearly  defined;  and  as  his  mis- 
sionary life  lasted  for  forty-five  years,  and  was 
one  of  incessant  preaching  and  teaching,  we  may 
well  believe  that  he  mapped  out  the  path  with 
extreme  care  and  accuracy,  and  that  the  chart  of 
life  which  he  thus  elaborated  was  preserved  in 
all  its  detail  by  the  retentive  memory  of  his  lis- 
teners and  their  disciples,  and  has  come  down  in- 
tact to  the  present  day.  We  may  also  assume 
with  confidence  that  tradition  has  faithfully  pre- 
served that  part  of  his  teaching  in  which  he  gave 
reasons  for  the  faith  that  was  in  him.  It  is 
certain  that  he  urged  men  to  enter  and  walk  in 
the  path  in  order  that,  by  extinguishing  all  desire 
for  earthly  things,  they  might  win  deliverance 
from  the  earth-life,  with  its  attendant  suffering, 
and  attain  to  that  blessed  state  of  being  which 
he  called  Nirvana.  It  is  further  certain  that  he 
believed  in  re-incarnation,  and  took  for  granted 
that  those  who  listened  to  him  held  the  same  be- 
lief;  and  that  therefore  he  meant  by  deliverance 
from  earth  deliverance  from  the  ^'whirlpool  of 
rebirth,"  deliverance  from  the  cycle  of  earth- 
lives  which  the  unenlightened  soul  is  bound  to 
pass  through. 

This  much  is  practically  certain.  But  when 
we  ask  ourselves  what  Buddha  meant  by  re-in- 
carnation— a  question  which  must  be  asked,  and 


THE  TEACHING  OF  BUDDHA      73 

which  obviously  gives  rise  to  other  questions 
wider  and  deeper  than  itself — we  come  to  the 
verge  of  what  Is  obscure  and  dubious;  and  the 
very  next  step  takes  us  into  a  region  of  pure 
conjecture  in  which  at  present  there  Is  neither 
path  nor  guide. 

For  this  sudden  and  complete  change  there 
are  two  chief  reasons.  The  first  is  that,  even 
when  a  great  teacher  says  much  about  the  ulti- 
mate realities  of  existence  (or  what  he  regards 
as  such) ,  It  Is  extremely  difficult  to  make  out  what 
he  really  believes.  In  the  realm  of  metaphysical 
speculation,  whether  we  are  thinking  for  our- 
selves or  trying  to  Interpret  the  ideas  of  others — 
the  two  enterprises  are  really  one — we  feel  (if 
we  have  any  qualification  for  either  task)  that 
our  thoughts  are  utterly  inadequate  to  the  solu- 
tion of  our  problems,  and  that  our  words,  besides 
being  of  Protean  Instability,  are  utterly  inade- 
quate to  the  expression  of  our  thoughts.  Who 
but  the  novice  at  speculative  thinking  would  ven- 
ture to  make  any  statement  with  confidence  when 
he  had  to  use  such  words  as  Soul,  Ego,  Person, 
Consciousness,  Being,  Reality,  Universe,  God; — 
words  that  have  different  meanings  for  different 
minds;  words  that  take  new  shades  of  meaning 
from  each  new  standpoint  which  the  thinker  finds 
it  needful  to  adopt,  and  even  from  each  new  con- 
text which  the  course  of  his  thinking  suggests 
to  him ;  words  that  stand  on  guard  at  the  portal 


74        THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

of  every  metaphysical  Inquiry,  and  refuse  to  allow 
us  to  pass  until  we  have  read  the  riddle  of  their 
meaning  and  so  answered  their  unanswerable 
challenge  ? 

The  second  reason  for  our  uncertainty  as  to 
the  metaphysical  grounds  on  which  Buddha 
based  his  ethical  teaching,  Is  that  he  himself  was 
so  far  from  dogmatising  about  what  Is  ultimate 
as  to  preserve  a  deep  and  consistent  silence 
with  regard  to  It.  The  meaning  and  the  signifi- 
cance of  this  silence  will  presently  be  considered. 
Meanwhile  I  can  but  say,  with  Dr.  Oldenberg, 
that  In  the  Buddhist  philosophy  (as  It  Is  pre- 
sented to  us  In  the  Sacred  Scriptures)  'Ve  have 
a  fragment  of  a  circle,  to  complete  which  and  to 
find  the  centre  of  which.  Is  forbidden,  for  It 
would  Involve  an  Inquiry  after  things  which  do 
not  contribute  to  deliverance  and  happiness.'* 

Let  us  now  set  forth  what  Is  clear  and  cer- 
tain In  Buddha's  teaching,  and  then  advance 
from  this  In  the  direction  of  what  Is  dubious  and 
obscure.  It  Is  fitting  that  we  should  begin,  as 
Buddha  himself  began,  with  the  Four  Sacred 
Truths.  In  the  Sermon  to  Five  Ascetics  at  Be- 
nares, which  tradition  gives  as  the  opening  act 
of  the  ministry  of  Buddha,  the  Four-fold  Truth 
is  set  forth  in  the  following  words : 

"There   are   two   extremes,    O   monks,    from 


THE  TEACHING  OF  BUDDHA      75 

which  he  who  leads  a  religious  life  must  ab- 
stain. What  are  those  two  extremes?  One  is  a 
life  of  pleasure,  devoted  to  desire  and  enjoy- 
ment; that  is  base,  ignoble,  unspiritual,  un- 
worthy, unreal.  The  other  is  a  life  of  mortifica- 
tion; it  is  gloomy,  unw^orthy,  unreal.  The  Per- 
fect One,  O  monks,  is  removed  from  both  those 
extremes  and  has  discovered  the  way  which  lies 
between  them,  the  middle  way  which  enlightens 
the  mind,  which  leads  to  rest,  to  knowledge,  to 
enlightenment,  to  Nirvana.  And  what,  O 
monks,  is  this  middle  way,  which  the  Perfect 
One  has  discovered,  which  enlightens  the  eye  and 
enlightens  the  spirit,  which  leads  to  rest,  to 
knowledge,  to  enlightenment,  to  Nirvana?  It 
is  this  sacred  eightfold  path,  as  it  is  called:  Right 
Faith,  Right  Resolve,  Right  Speech,  Right  Ac- 
tion, Right  Living,  Right  Effort,  Right 
Thought,  Right  Self-Concentration.  This,  O 
monks,  is  the  middle  way,  which  the  Perfect  One 
has  discovered,  which  enlightens  the  eye  and  en- 
lightens the  spirit,  which  leads  to  rest,  to  know- 
ledge, to  enlightenment,  to  Nirvana. 

*'This,  O  monks,  is  the  sacred  truth  of  suffer- 
ing; birth  is  suffering,  old  age  is  suffering,  death 
is  suffering,  to  be  united  with  the  unloved  is  suf- 
fering, to  be  separated  from  the  loved  is  suffer- 
ing, not  to  obtain  what  one  desires  is  suffering, 
in  short  the  fivefold  clinging  to  the  earthly  is 
suffering. 


76        THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

''This,  O  monks,  is  the  sacred  truth  of  the 
origin  of  suffering;  it  is  the  thirst  for  being, 
which  leads  from  birth  to  birth,  together  with 
lust  and  desire,  which  finds  gratification  here  and 
there :  the  thirst  for  pleasures,  the  thirst  for  be- 
ing, the  thirst  for  power. 

"This,  O  monks,  is  the  sacred  truth  of  the  ex- 
tinction of  suffering;  the  extinction  of  this  thirst 
by  complete  annihilation  of  desire,  letting  it  go, 
expelling  it,  separating  oneself  from  it,  giving  it 
no  room. 

"This,  O  monks,  is  the  sacred  truth  of  the 
path  which  leads  to  the  extinction  of  suffering; 
it  is  this  sacred,  eightfold  path,  to  wit.  Right 
Faith,  Right  Resolve,  Right  Speech,  Right  Ac- 
tion, Right  Living,  Right  Effort,  Right 
Thought,  Right  Self-Concentration."* 

This  is  the  Four-fold  Truth,  on  which  Bud- 
dha's whole  scheme  of  life  is  hinged.  Let  us  try 
to  set  it  forth  in  other  and  fewer  words : — 

( 1 )  Life  on  earth  is  full  of  suffering. 

(2)  Suffering  is  generated  by  desire. 

(3)  The  extinction  of  desire  involves  the 
extinction  of  suffering. 

(4)  The  extinction  of  desire  (and  therefore 
of  suffering)  is  the  outcome  of  a  righteous  life. 

There  is  one  link  in  Buddha's  teaching  which 

*"Buddha,"  by  Herman  Oldenberg.     Translated  by  W. 
Hoey. 


THE  TEACHING  OF  BUDDHA      77 

seems  to  be  missing.  Why  does  desire  generate 
suffering?  The  answer  to  this  question  Is  given 
in  a  discourse  which  Buddha  Is  said  to  have 
held  with  the  five  ascetics  shortly  after  he 
had  expounded  to  them  the  Four  Sacred 
Truths. 

''  'The  Exalted  One,'  so  the  tradition  nar- 
rates, "spake  to  the  five  monks  thus: 

*'  'The  material  form,  O  monks,  is  not  the  self. 
If  material  form  were  the  self,  O  monks,  this 
material  form  could  not  be  subject  to  sickness, 
and  a  man  should  be  able  to  say  regarding  his 
material  form:  My  body  shall  be  so  and  so; 
my  body  shall  not  be  so  and  so.  But  Inasmuch, 
O  monks,  as  material  form  Is  not  the  self,  there- 
fore Is  material  form  subject  to  sickness,  and  a 
man  cannot  say  as  regards  his  material  form: 
My  body  shall  be  so  and  so. 

"  'The  sensations,  O  monks,  are  not  the  self  '' 
— and  then  follows  In  detail  regarding  the  sensa- 
tions the  very  same  exposition  which  has  been 
given  regarding  the  body.  Then  comes  the 
same  detailed  explanation  regarding  the  remain- 
ing three  component  elements,  the  perceptions, 
the  conformations,  the  consciousness,  which 
In  combination  with  the  material  form  and 
the  sensations  constitute  man's  sentient 
state  of  being.  Then  Buddha  goes  on  to 
say: 


78        THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

"How  think  ye  then,  O  monks,  is  material 
form  permanent  or  Impermanent?" 
"Impermanent,  Sire." 
"But  is  that  which  Is  Impermanent,  sorrow  or 

joy?" 

"Sorrow,  Sire." 

"But  If  a  man  duly  considers  that  which  Is 
impermanent,  full  of  sorrow,  subject  to  change, 
can  he  say:  that  Is  mine,  that  Is  I,  that  is 
myself?" 

"Sire,  he  cannot." 

Then  follows  the  same  exposition  In  similar 
terms  regarding  sensations,  perceptions,  confor- 
mations and  consciousness:  after  which  the  dis- 
course proceeds: 

"Therefore,  O  monks,  whatever  in  the  way  of 
material  form,  sensations,  perceptions,  etc.,  re- 
spectively, has  ever  been,  will  be,  or  Is,  either  in 
our  case,  or  in  the  outer  world,  or  strong  or 
weak,  or  low  or  high,  or  far  or  near,  it  is  not 
self:  this  must  he  in  truth  perceive,  who  possesses 
real  knowledge.  Whosoever  regards  things  in 
this  light,  O  monks,  being  a  wise  and  noble 
hearer  of  the  word,  turns  himself  from  sensa- 
tion and  perception,  from  conformation  and  con- 
sciousness. When  he  turns  therefrom,  he  be- 
comes free  from  desire;  by  the  cessation  of  de- 
sire he  obtains  deliverance;  in  the  delivered 
there  arises  a  consciousness  of  his  deliverance: 
rebirth  is  extinct,  holiness  is  completed,  duty  is 


THE  TEACHING  OF  BUDDHA     79 

accomplished;  there  Is  no  more  a  return  to  this 
world,  he  knows."* 

We  now  understana  what  the  desire  Is  that 
generates  suffering,  and  why  It  generates  It.  It 
is  the  desire  for  what  does  not  belong  to  "self" — 
the  real  selff — that  generates  suffering;  and  the 
reason  why  such  desire  generates  suffering  Is  that 
what  does  not  belong  to  the  real  self  Is  Imperma- 
nent, changeable,  perishable,  and  that  imperma- 
nence  In  the  object  of  desire  must  needs  cause  dis- 
appointment, regret,  disillusionment,  and  other 
forms  of  suffering  to  him  who  desires.  The 
tendency  to  identify  self  with  what  Is  material 
and  temporal,  and  therefore  to  desire  for  oneself 
material  and  temporal  goods  and  pleasures.  Is 
the  chief  cause  of  human  suffering;  for,  when 
such  goods  and  pleasures  are  desired,  success  In 
the  pursuit  of  them  Is  perhaps  more  hurtful  and 
scarcely  less  painful  than  failure.  And  not  only 
does  this  tendency,  with  Its  derivative  desire, 
cause  suffering  in  the  present  earth-life,  but  It 
also  causes  suffering  to  be  reproduced  for  the  self 
in  future  earth-lives;  for  it  Is  desire  for  the 
goods  and  pleasures  of  earth  which,  acting  as 
a  strong  magnetic  force,  draws  the  self  back  to 

*"Buddha,"  by  Herman  Oldenberg.  Translated  by  W. 
Hoey. 

tThe  distinction  between  the  higher  and  the  lower,  the 
real  and  the  apparent  self,  is  at  the  root  of  Buddha's  moral 
teaching,  as  it  is  of  Christ's. 


8o        THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

earth  again  and  again.  Desire  in  itself  is  not 
evil.  On  this  point  Buddha's  teaching  must  not 
be  misunderstood.  His  disciples  are  expressly 
told — this  Is  the  very  sum  and  substance  of  his 
teaching — to  desire  and  strive  for  enlightenment, 
deliverance,  Nirvana.  Desire  for  the  pleas- 
ures, or  rather  for  the  joys,  that  minister  to  the 
real  self,  is  wholly  good.  It  is  desire  for  the 
pleasures  that  minister  to  the  lower  self;  it  Is 
the  desire  to  affirm  the  lower  self,  to  live  In  It, 
to  cling  to  It,  to  rest  in  it;  It  Is  the  desire  to  Iden- 
tify oneself  with  the  Individual  self  and  the  Im- 
permanent world  which  centres  In  It,  Instead  of 
with  the  Universal  Self  and  the  eternal  world  of 
which  It  Is  at  once  the  centre  and  the  circumfer- 
ence ; — It  Is  this  desire,  taking  a  thousand  forms, 
which  is  evil,  and  which  proves  itself  to  be  evil 
by  causing  ceaseless  suffering  to  mankind.  If 
the  self  Is  to  be  delivered  from  suffering,  desire 
for  what  Is  Impermanent,  changeable,  and  unreal 
must  be  extinguished ;  and  the  gradual  extinction 
of  unworthy  desire  must  therefore  be  the  cen- 
tral purpose  of  one's  life. 

But  how  is  desire,  with  the  suffering  that  it 
generates,  to  be  extinguished?  The  answer  to 
this  question  is  the  Fourth  of  the  Sacred  Truths : 
"This,  O  monks,  Is  the  sacred  truth  of  the  path 
which  leads  to  the  extinction  of  suffering:  it  is 
the  sacred  eightfold  path,  to  wit,  Right  Faith, 


THE  TEACHING  OF  BUDDHA      8 1 

Right  Resolve,  Right  Speech,  Right  Action, 
Right  Effort,  Right  Thought,  Right  Self-Con- 
centration." 

There  is  no  part  of  Buddha's  teaching  In 
which  his  wisdom  shines  out  more  clearly  than 
in  this.  At  first  one  might  feel  disposed  to  think 
that  Right  Action  was  everything.  Buddha  does 
not  think  so.  Right  Speech,  Right  Action,  and 
Right  Living  may  perhaps  be  grouped  together 
under  the  general  head  of  Right  Conduct;  but 
there  are  other  elements  of  Righteousness  which 
Buddha  seems  to  regard  as  not  less  important 
than  these,  to  wit.  Right  Faith,  Right  Resolve, 
Right  Effort,  Right  Thought,  Right  Self-Con- 
centration. In  other  words,  Buddha  lays  as  much 
stress  on  the  inward  as  on  the  outward  side  of 
morality;  and  he  would  have  us  realise  that  con- 
duct, when  divorced  from  faith  and  thought  and 
purpose,  is  worth  nothing.  Under  the  Jewish 
Law — at  any  rate  In  the  later  developments  of 
legalism — correct  action  was  regarded  as  the  one 
thing  needful.  The  consequences  of  this  assump- 
tion were  disastrous  In  the  extreme.  A  mechani- 
cal and  quasi-material  conception  of  life  and  duty 
was  Introduced  into  the  very  heart  of  religion 
and  morality;  and  spiritual  freedom  was  crushed 
out  by  an  ever-growing  burden  of  narrow,  rigid, 
and  despotic  rules.  Buddha,  like  other  moral 
teachers,  found  it  necessary  to  give  men  rules  for 
the  conduct  of  life;  but  not  only  did  he  make  his 


82         THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

rules  as  few,  as  simple,  and  as  comprehensive  as 
possible,  but  by  associating  faith,  thought,  and 
purpose  with  speech  and  action,  by  impressing 
on  his  disciples  that  the  inward  side  of  conduct 
counts  for  at  least  as  much  as  the  outward,  he  pro- 
vided against  that  miserable  pullulation  of  triv- 
ial rules,  which  is  sure  to  arise  whenever  correct 
action  is  regarded  as  an  end  in  itself,  and  in  doing 
so  he  shielded  spiritual  freedom  from  the  most 
oppressive  and  most  deadly  form  of  constraint. 
Nevertheless,  when  we  have  once  realised  that 
the  inward  side  of  action — the  inward  approach- 
es to  it  and  the  inward  consequences  of  it — is  to 
the  full  as  real  and  as  significant  as  the  outward, 
we  may  safely  affirm,  what  Buddha  would  not 
have  denied,  that  Right  Conduct  is  the  aspect 
of  Righteousness  which  concerns  us  most.  What 
we  do,  besides  being  the  outward  and  visible 
sign  of  our  inward  and  spiritual  state,  reacts, 
naturally  and  necessarily,  on  what  we  are,  and  so 
moulds  our  character  and  controls  our  destiny — 
for  ''character  is  destiny" — both  in  this  and  in 
future  earth-lives.  That  being  so,  and  conduct 
being  the  aspect  of  a  man's  general  bearing  for 
which  directions  are  at  once  most  needed  and 
most  easy  to  give.  It  Is  not  to  be  wondered  at 
that  Buddha  should  have  thought  it  necessary  to 
formulate  moral  rules  for  the  guidance  of  his 
followers, — men  who  were  presumably  Ignorant 
and  unenlightened    (for   his   message   was   ad- 


THE  TEACHING  OF  BUDDHA      83 

dressed  to  all  men)  and  therefore  In  need  of 
some  measure  of  ethical  direction. 

In  framing  his  moral  code,  Buddha,  accord- 
ing to  his  wont,  departed  widely  from  precedent, 
and  showed  that,  as  regards  his  outlook  on  life, 
he  was  far  In  advance  of  his  age.  The  ethical 
legislators  of  antiquity  addressed  themselves  to  a 
comparatively  narrow  audience, — a  city,  a  tribe, 
or  a  people;  they  went  fully  Into  detail,  their 
rules  being  many  and  minute;  and  they  went 
far  beyond  the  limits  of  ethics  proper,  nine- 
tenths  of  their  rules  being  civil  or  ceremonial 
rather  than  ethical  (In  the  stricter,  and  yet  broad- 
er and  more  spiritual  sense  of  the  word) .  Bud- 
dha, on  the  contrary,  addressed  himself  to  the 
widest  of  all  audiences, — to  the  whole  human 
race :  he  carefully  abstained  from  going  Into  de- 
tail, his  rules  being  few,  simple,  and  compre- 
hensive; and  he  kept  entirely  within  the  limits 
of  ethics  proper,  limits  which  he  may  almost  be 
said — so  original  and  so  formative  was  his 
teaching — to  have  been  the  first  to  define. 

Here  Is  his  Code  of  Moral  Law. 

The  believer  Is  required 

1.  To  kill  no  living  thing. 

2.  Not  to  lay  hands  on  another's  property. 

3.  Not  to  touch  another's  wife. 

4.  Not  to  speak  what  Is  untrue. 

5.  Not  to  drink  Intoxicating  drinks. 

A  simple  code  this,  but  as  profound  as  it  Is 


84        THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

simple.  To  begin  with,  its  extreme  simplicity 
means  that  its  authority  is  in  the  main  self-evi- 
dent; in  other  words,  that  it  makes  a  direct  ap- 
peal to  a  man's  latent  moral  sense,  and,  in  ap- 
pealing to  it,  trains  it  and  helps  it  to  grow.  In 
the  next  place,  the  fact  that  the  rules  are  all  pro- 
hibitions means  that  the  believer  is,  first  and  fore- 
most, to  exercise  self-control.  The  reason  why 
he  is  to  exercise  self-control  is  that  deliverance 
from  suffering  is  to  be  won  by  the  suppression  of 
unworthy  desires,  and  that  without  the  exercise 
of  self-control  desire  cannot  be  suppressed.  The 
five  rules  indicate  five  arterial  directions  in  which 
his  self-control  is  to  be  exercised.  Thus  the  first 
rule  calls  upon  him  to  control  the  passion  of 
anger;  the  second,  the  desire  for  material  pos- 
sessions; the  third,  the  lusts  of  the  flesh;  the 
fourth,  cowardice  and  malevolence  (the  chief 
causes  of  untruthfulness)  ;  the  fifth,  the  craving 
for  unwholesome  excitement.  It  is  to  be  noted 
that  the  desires  and  passions  which  the  believer 
is  called  upon  to  suppress,  are  those  which  are 
most  hurtful  to  his  own  inner  life,  most  produc- 
tive of  suffering  to  himself,  and  most  productive 
of  suffering  to  his  fellow  men.  By  learning  self- 
control  with  regard  to  these,  he  not  only  brings 
happiness  to  himself  and  to  others,  but  he  also 
strengthens  himself  for  the  more  general  work 
of  suppressing  unworthy  desires  of  every  sort 
and  kind.    But  the  five  rules  are  something  more 


THE  TEACHING  OF  BUDDHA      85 

than  mere  prohibitions.  Self-control  necessarily 
prepares  the  way  for  the  development  of  the 
more  positive  and  active  virtues.  When  the  baser 
tendencies  of  man's  nature  are  kept  under  such 
strict  control  that  at  last  they  lose  their  base- 
ness and  cease  to  obstruct  the  outgrowth  of  the 
nobler  tendencies,  the  latter  must  needs  begin  to 
germinate.  Thus  the  control  of  anger  will  pre^ 
pare  the  way  for  the  outgrowth  of  gen- 
tleness and  compassion;  the  control  of  cov- 
etousness,  for  the  outgrowth  of  charitable- 
ness and  generosity;  the  control  of  lust,  for 
the  outgrowth  of  purity  and  unselfish  love; 
and  so  forth.  "How  does  a  monk  become  a 
partaker  of  uprightness?"  asks  Buddha.  The 
answer  is,  "A  monk  abstains  from  killing 
living  creatures;  he  refrains  from  causing  the 
death  of  living  creatures;  he  lays  down  the  stick; 
he  lays  down  weapons.  He  is  compassionate 
and  tender-hearted;  he  seeks  with  friendly  spirit 
the  welfare  of  all  living  things.  This  Is  part 
of  his  uprightness."  Let  a  man  abstain 
from  unkindness  to  his  fellow  men  and  other 
"living  creatures," — and  the  germs  of  kindness, 
gentleness,  and  compassion  which  are  lying  dor- 
mant In  his  nature  will  begin  to  make  spontane- 
ous growth.    And  so  with  the  other  rules. 

Yet  Buddha  was  wise  to  limit  his  formulated 
law  to  negative  commandments.  If  a  positive 
commandment  is  to  move  men  to  well-doing,  it 


86        THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

must  be  in  some  sort  a  counsel  of  perfection; 
and  there  are  few  men  who  can  receive  a  coun- 
sel of  perfection  In  the  spirit  In  which  it  Is,  or 
ought  to  be,  given  to  them.  Some  natures  are 
over-wrought  by  It,  and  lose  their  spiritual  bal- 
ance. Others  Interpret  It  literally,  and  so  make 
nonsense  of  Its  transcendent  sense.  Others  again 
(the  majority)  listen  to  It,  but  pay  no  heed  to 
it.  For  ordinary  men  it  is  best  that  the  active, 
positive  side  of  virtue  should  be  approached — 
gradually  and  naturally — from  the  side  of  self- 
control.  Also,  It  must  be  remembered  that  the 
formulation  oi  a  positive  moral  law  tends,  es- 
pecially in  an  age  of  ceremonialism,  to  arrest  the 
development  of  conscience, —  the  very  faculty 
which,  in  the  Buddhist  scheme  of  life,  there  Is 
most  need  for  men  to  cultivate.  When  a  man 
does  kind  and  compassionate  deeds  (let  us  say), 
not  because  his  better  nature,  acting  through  his 
moral  sense,  prompts  him  to  do  them,  but  be- 
cause he  Is  authoritatively  commanded  to  do 
them,  there  Is  a  danger  lest  the  man's  moral 
sense,  finding  that  there  was  little  or  no  work 
for  It  to  do,  either  as  a  prompter  or  as  a  guide, 
should  gradually  cease  to  energise,  and  the  man 
should  at  last  become  entirely  dependent  for 
moral  guidance  on  formulated  rules  and  their 
professional  exponents.  Obedience  to  a  nega- 
tive commandment — provided  that  the  com- 
mandment Is  sufficiently  broad  and  simple  for  the 


THE  TEACHING  OF  BUDDHA      87 

spirit  of  It  to  appeal  to  one — can  do  no  harm  to 
him  who  obeys,  and  may  do  much  good,  for  the 
discipline  of  self-control  Is  one  of  the  best  of 
moral  tonics.  But  when  the  self-control  has  done 
its  work,  when  the  soul,  braced  and  disciplined, 
is  ready  to  walk  in  the  path  of  active  virtue,  It 
Is  in  the  highest  degree  desirable  that  It  should 
be  allowed  to  walk  by  Itself  (or  with  no  more 
guidance  than  Is  implicit  In  the  prohibitions 
which  It  has  obeyed) ,  and  that  nothing  should  be 
done  to  impair  its  insight  or  weaken  its  will. 

There  were  weighty  reasons,  then,  why  Bud- 
dha's ethical  teaching  should  have  been  mainly 
negative.  There  Is,  however,  one  positive  vir- 
tue which  Is  Inculcated  In  all  the  Buddhist  Scrip- 
tures,— the  virtue  In  which.  In  its  embryonic 
stage,  all  other  virtues  are  present  In  embryo, — 
the  virtue  in  which,  in  its  Ideal  stage,  all  other 
virtues  are  crowned  and  consummated, — love. 
Not  the  Impersonal  passion  of  universal  love — 
that  would  come  at  the  end  of  the  Path,  not  at 
the  beginning — but  the  Impersonal  sentiment  of 
sympathy,  with  all  that  It  involves, — kindness, 
gentleness,  unselfishness,  compassion.  That  this 
should  have  found  a  prominent  place  In  the  Bud- 
dhist scheme  of  life  was  inevitable,  for,  when  ego- 
Ism  has  been  subdued,  the  self  Is  constrained,  by 
the  expansive  stress  of  its  own  inward  nature,  to 
find  channels  for  the  overflow  of  Its  abounding 
life;  and  the  safest  and  most  accessible  channel 


88        THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

of  overflow  Is  that  of  sympathy,  first  with  other 
men  and  then  with  every  living  thing.  But  the 
process  which  is  thus  initiated — a  process  of 
self-realisation  through  self-expansion — will  not 
cease  until  sympathy  has  transformed  itself  into 
the  passion  of  spiritual  love,  and  the  individual 
life  has  at  once  lost  and  found  itself  in  the  Uni- 
versal Life,  which  is  and  has  always  been  its 
own  true  self. 

When  a  teacher  tries  to  bring  salvation  within 
the  reach  of  all  men,  he  is  confronted  by  the  diffi- 
culty that  men  are  in  various  stages  of  spiritual 
development,  and  that  rules  of  life  which  are  suffi- 
cient for  the  many  may  prove  to  be  too  elemen- 
tary for  the  few.  Not  that  the  few  are  to  ignore 
those  rules  or  neglect  to  observe  them.  That 
they  observe  them  fully  and  faithfully,  and  would 
never  dream  of  breaking  them,  is  taken  for 
granted.  But  the  simpler  rules  of  life  need  to  be 
supplemented,  in  these  exceptional  cases,  by 
others  which  are  at  once  more  elevating  and 
more  exacting.  When  the  foothills  of  life  have 
been  surmounted,  the  more  difficult  and  danger- 
ous mountain  heights  will  come  in  view,  and  di- 
rections for  climbing  these  will  be  needed  and 
will  have  to  be  given. 

In  the  Eight-fold  Path  there  are  Four  Stages, 
each  of  which  is  marked  by  the  breaking  of  some 


THE  TEACHING  OF  BUDDHA      89 

of  the  ^Tetters" — ten  In  all — which  bind  man 
to  earth  and  to  self. 

In  the  First  Stage,  the  stage  of  ^^ Conversion'^ 
or  ^'entering  upon  the  stream,''  three  fetters  are 
broken : — 

( 1 )  The  delusion  of  self;  the  delusive  belief 
that  the  individual  self  is  real  and  self-existent. 
This  fetter  Is  rightly  placed  at  the  head  of  the 
list;  for  the  clinging  to  Individuality,  the  desire 
to  affirm  the  apparent  or  actual  self  Instead  of 
looking  forward  to  Its  expansion  into  the  real 
or  universal  self,  has  its  ethical  counterpart  In 
egoism,  and  egoism  Is  the  beginning  and  end  of 
sin. 

(2)  Doubt:  doubt  as  to  the  wisdom  of  the 
teacher  and  the  efficacy  of  the  prescribed  Path. 

(3)  Belief  in  the  efficacy  of  good  works  and 
ceremonies.  The  disciple  must  free  himself, 
first  from  the  general  delusion  that  correct  out- 
ward action  will  ensure  a  man's  salvation,  and 
then  from  the  particular  delusion  that  religious 
rites  and  ceremonies  have  intrinsic  value. 

Having  broken  these  fetters,  the  disciple  en- 
ters the  Second  Stage,  ^^the  path  of  those  who  will 
return  only  once  to  earth."  In  this,  and  in  the 
Third  Stage,  ''^the  path  of  those  who  will  never 
return  to  earth,"  two  more  fetters  are  broken : 

(4)  The  fetter  of  sensuality  or  fleshly  lust. 
The  belief  that  fleshly  lusts  war  against  the  soul 
Is  not  peculiar  to  Buddhism.     The  difficulty  for 


90         THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

most  religions,  and  indeed  for  most  men,  is  to 
hit  the  mean  between  rigorous  asceticism  and 
moral  laxity.  Buddha,  who  regarded  the  "life 
of  mortification"  as  "unreal"  and  "unworthy," 
carefully  abstained  from  overstraining  human  na- 
ture in  that  particular  direction.  It  was  only  In 
the  case  of  the  "monk"  or  "religious  devotee" 
that  complete  renunciation  of  the  pleasures  of 
the  flesh  was  enjoined.  But  in  the  third  stage, 
"the  path  of  those  who  will  return  to  earth  no 
more,"  every  one  Is  in  a  sense  a  religious  devo- 
tee; and  there  can  be  little  doubt,  I  think,  that 
In  that  stage  the  final  extinction  of  lust  was  con- 
templated. If  so,  that  achievement  would  be 
the  consummation  of  a  long  course — perhaps 
pursued  through  many  lives — of  continence  and 
self-control. 

( 5 )  The  fetter  of  ill-will.  The  disciple  has 
to  subdue  all  the  feelings  of  anger,  resentment, 
envy,  jealousy,  hatred,  and  the  like,  which  spring 
from  his  sense  of  separateness  from  the  rest  of 
mankind,  or  rather  from  the  rest  of  living  things, 
and  from  his  consequent  reluctance  to  Identify 
himself  with  the  Universal  Life.  In  order  to 
get  rid  of  those  feelings,  a  spiritual  exercise  was 
prescribed  by  the  early  Buddhists,  which  Is  em- 
inently characteristic  of  the  general  spirit  of  Bud- 
dhism. 

"He    [the    disciple]    lets   his   mind    pervade 


THE  TEACHING  OF  BUDDHA      91 

one  quarter  of  the  world  with  thoughts  of 
love,  and  so  the  second,  and  so  the  third,  and  so 
the  fourth.  And  thus  the  whole  wide  world, 
above,  below,  around  and  everywhere,  does  he 
continue  to  pervade  with  heart  of  love,  far-reach- 
ing, grown  great,  and  beyond  measure.  Just  as 
a  mighty  trumpeter  makes  himself  heard  and 
without  difficulty  towards  all  the  four  directions, 
even  so  of  all  things  that  have  shape  or  form, 
there  is  not  one  that  he  passes  or  leaves  aside,  but 
regards  them  all  with  mind  set  free  and  deep- 
felt  love."  The  exercise  is  then  repeated,  sub- 
stituting each  time  for  love,  first  pity,  then  sym- 
pathy, then  equanimity.  By  this  means  the 
strength  of  the  fifth  fetter  is  gradually  weak- 
ened, and  at  last  destroyed.* 

The  whole  of  the  Second  and  Third  Stages 
is  occupied  with  the  struggle  against  the  many 
enemies  of  the  higher  life  who  fight  under  the 
banners  of  sensuality  and  ill-will.  When  all  of 
these  have  been  finally  conquered,  the  disciple 
enters  the  Fourth  Stage,  ''^the  path  of  the  Holy 
Ones,  or  Jrahats.'^  There  he  breaks,  one  by  one, 
the  five  remaining  fetters,  to  wit : 

(6)  The  desire  for  life — for  separate  life — 
in  the  worlds  of  form. 

(7)  The  desire  for  life — for  separate  life — 

in  the  formless  worlds. 

*"Buddhism,  Its  History  and  Literature,"  by  T.  W.  Rhys 
Davids. 


92        THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

( 8 )  Pride. 

(9)  Self 'Righteousness. 

Ought  not  the  eighth  and  ninth  fetters  to 
have  been  broken  long  ago?  Perhaps  they 
ought;  but  Buddha  knew  that  even  in  the  last 
stage  of  the  upward  Path  the  shadow  of  egoism 
may  fall  on  one's  thought.  The  man  who  can 
say  to  himself:  "It  is  I  who  have  walked  in  the 
Path.  It  is  I  who  have  scaled  these  heights. 
It  Is  I  who  have  suppressed  egoism.  It  is  I  who 
have  won  deliverance :"  is  still  the  victim  of  de- 
lusions.   There  are  still  fetters  for  him  to  break. 

(10)  Ignorance.  The  last  fetter,  like  the 
first,  is  ignorance.  As  the  Path  begins  with  en- 
lightenment, so  it  ends  with  it.  It  begins  with 
potential  enlightenment.  It  ends  with  actual  en- 
lightenment. It  begins  with  partial  enlighten- 
ment. It  ends  with  perfect  enlightenment.  It 
Is  for  the  sake  of  knowledge — real,  final,  abso- 
lute knowledge — that  the  Path  has  been  fol- 
lowed. To  know  that  the  Universal  Self  is 
one's  own  real  self, — to  know  this  truth,  not  as  a 
theory,  not  as  a  conclusion,  not  as  a  poetic  idea, 
not  as  a  sudden  revelation,  but  as  the  central  fact 
of  one's  own  inmost  life, — to  know  this  truth 
(in  the  most  intimate  sense  of  the  word  know) 
by  living  it,  by  being  it, — is  the  final  end  of  all 
spiritual  effort.  The  expansion  of  the  Self, 
which  is  the  outcome  of  spiritual  effort,  carries 
with  it  the  expansion  of  consciousness ;  and  when 


THE  TEACHING  OF  BUDDHA      93 

consciousness  has  become  all-embracing,  the  fet- 
ter of  Ignorance  has  been  finally  broken,  and  the 
delusion  of  self  is  dead. 

When  the  last  fetter  has  been  broken,  the  dis- 
ciple— the  "Arahat"  or  "Holy  One"  as  he  Is  now 
called — has  reached  his  goal;  In  other  words,  he 
has  attained  to  a  state  of  perfect*  knowledge, 
perfect  love,  perfect  peace,  perfect  bliss. 

There  Is  something  esoteric,  one  feels  Inclined 
to  say.  In  this  Path  of  the  Four  Stages.  One  finds 
some  difficulty  In  Identifying  It  with  the  Eight- 
fold Path  of  the  Fourth  Sacred  Truth.  From 
Buddha's  day  down  to  our  own,  there  has  never 
been  an  age  In  which  the  number  of  men  who 
could  really  break  even  the  first  of  the  Ten  Fet- 
ters was  not  exceedingly  small.  What  of  the 
rest  of  mankind?  Was  no  provision  made  for 
them  In  Buddha's  scheme  of  life?     Was  that 


*I  use  the  word  perfect,  in  this  and  in  similar  passages, 
in  a  relative,  not  in  an  absolute  sense.  (See  Footnote  to 
P.  27.)  I  am  thinking,  not  of  absolute  perfection,  what- 
ever that  may  be,  but  of  the  relative  perfection  which  is 
reached  Vv^hen  a  process,  such  as  that  of  soul-growth,  has 
been  carried  through  to  its  apparent  conclusion,— to  the 
conclusion  that  bounds  our  prophetic  vision,  when  we  look 
down  the  vista  which  the  process  opens  up  to  us.  It  is 
possible  that  Nirvana  itself  i«  but  a  resting-place  in  the 
soul's  journey, — a  lake  or  lagoon  in  which  many  streams 
of  soul-life  meet  and  seem  to  lose  themselves,  but  from 
which  they  will  issue  as  a  single  mighty  river,  and  resume, 
under  new  conditions,  their  journey  to  the  Ocean  of  con- 
scious life.  But  as  that  Ocean  lies  far  beyond  the  utmost 
horizon  of  our  forethought,  it  is  but  right  that  we  should 
regard  the  peace  of  Nirvana,  as  Buddhism  has  always  re- 
garded it,  as  the  final  end  of  our  spiritual  aspiration  and 
effort. 


94        THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

scheme  meant  for  recluses  and  "adepts" — or 
would-be  "adepts" — only?  Were  ordinary  men 
to  be  left  to  their  own  devices  until  the  time 
came  for  them  to  be  "converted"  (by  what  mira- 
cle we  cannot  well  conjecture),  and  to  realise 
what  is  so  hard  for  even  the  best  of  us  to  real- 
ise,— the  unreality  of  the  individual  life? 

Surely  not.  "Conversion"  has  been  happily 
defined  as  the  "effective  realisation  of  admitted 
truth."  The  process  that  leads  up  to  "conver- 
sion" is  carried  on,  for  the  most  part,  in  silence 
and  obscurity.  There  is  always  a  long  period  of 
ante-natal  growth  before  the  new  idea,  the  new 
way  of  looking  at  things,  can  come  to  the  birth. 
The  authorities  on  Buddhism  whom  I  have  con- 
sulted do  not  make  it  clear  whether  the  First 
Fetter  was  to  be  broken  at  the  entrance  to  the 
First  Stage  of  the  Path,  or  whether  It  was  the 
first  delusion  to  be  got  rid  of  after  the  soul  had 
entered  that  stage.  In  the  latter  case  the  diffi- 
culty of  Identifying  the  Path  of  the  Four  Stages 
with  the  Eight-fold  Path  vanishes;  for  It  Is  quite 
conceivable  that  the  soul  should  linger  long  In 
the  First  Stage,  should  even  pass,  during  Its 
sojourn  In  it,  through  a  sequence  of  earth-lives, 
before  It  could  realise  that  Its  sense  of  separate- 
ness  was  illusory.  In  the  former  case  we  must 
adopt  another  hypothesis.  We  must  assume  that, 
before  the  first  of  the  Four  Stages  can  be  entered, 
there  must  be  for  most  men  a  long  preliminary 


THE  TEACHING  OF  BUDDHA      95 

stage  of  preparation,  during  which  they  follow, 
perhaps  through  a  sequence  of  lives,  the  rules  of 
Right  Conduct — the  simple  rules  of  kindness, 
honesty,  continence,  truthfulness,  temperance — 
until  at  last  the  reaction  of  Right  Conduct  on 
character,  and  the  consequent  expansion  of  the 
Self  and  enlargement  of  the  field  of  Its  con- 
sciousness, makes  It  possible  for  them  to  enter  the 
Path  proper, — the  Path  which  will  lead  them  In 
the  fullness  of  time  to  the  goal  of  conscious 
union  with  the  Living  Whole.  In  either  case  we 
may  take  for  granted  that,  before  the  First  Fet- 
ter can  be  broken  and  flung  aside,  the  soul  must 
set  Itself  to  acquire  the  strength  which  will  enable 
It  to  perform  that  Initiatory  act  of  renunciation, 
and  that  It  Is  only  by  a  course  of  "Right  Con- 
duct"— by  the  consistent  exercise  of  self-control, 
and  culture  of  sympathy — that  It  can  acquire 
the  strength  which  it  needs. 

In  any  case  we  are  free  to  regard  the  Four- 
fold Truth  as  a  message  to  the  rank  and  file 
of  mankind.  Men  might  accept  that  message, 
and  even  begin.  In  their  feeble,  faltering  way,  to 
walk  by  It,  before  they  were  fit  to  advance  Into 
the  more  esoteric  stages  of  the  Path  of  Life. 
But  those  stages  must  be  passed  through — on 
this  Buddha  would  have  Insisted  with  all  the 
weight  of  his  authority — before  the  goal  can  be 
reached.  Miracles,  in  the  supernatural  sense  of 
the  word,  are  not  to  be  looked  for  In  the  moral, 


96        THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

any  more  than  in  the  physical  world.  It  is  con- 
ceivable that  my  neighbour,  whose  spiritual  de- 
velopment is  far  in  advance  of  mine,  may  com- 
plete the  Path  in  50  years,  whereas  my  sojourn 
in  it  may  last  for  50,000;  but  by  him  as  by  me, 
and  by  me  as  by  him,  every  stage  must  be  passed 
through  and  every  fetter  must  be  broken,  if  the 
promised  prize  is  to  be  won.  It  is  sometimes 
said  that  for  ordinary  men  the  path  of  spiritual 
ascent  is  spiral,  w^hereas  for  men  of  exceptional 
spiritual  development  it  is  direct.  This  may  be 
so;  or  it  may  be  that  for  all  men  the  path  is 
spiral  up  to  a  certain  point,  and  beyond  that 
point  direct.  But  be  it  spiral  or  direct  or 
both,  it  is  certain  that  it  must  free  us  from  every 
delusion  that  separates  us  from  the  Real  Self, 
if  it  is  to  lead  us  to  our  goal. 

Whatever  view  we  may  take  of  Buddha's 
teaching,  we  must  admit  that  in  its  essence  it 
belongs  to  no  one  nation  and  no  one  age.  Moses 
legislated  for  the  Jews,  Lycurgus  for  the  Spar- 
tans, Zoroaster  for  the  Persians,  Confucius  for 
the  Chinese,  Buddha  for  all  men  who  have  ears 
to  hear.  Man,  as  Buddha  conceived  of  him,  is 
not  a  citizen  but  a  "living  soul.''  The  life  which 
the  scheme  prescribed,  though  compatible  with 
good  citizenship  and  even  conducive  to  it,  is 
quite  independent  of  it.  It  is  also  quite  inde- 
pendent of  caste,  of  social  gradation,  of  distinc- 
tions such  as  that  between  priest  and  layman,  be- 


THE  TEACHING  OF  BUDDHA      97 

tween  the  learned  and  the  ignorant,  between 
gentle  and  simple,  between  rich  and  poor.  Dr. 
Oldenberg's  contention  that  Buddha  had  no  mes- 
sage for  the  poor  and  lowly,  is  scarcely  tenable. 
The  inward  and  spiritual  life  can  be  lived  by  the 
poorest  of  day-labourers  not  less  than  by  the  rich- 
est of  millionaires.  If  anything,  It  is  easier  for 
the  poor  than  for  the  rich  to  enter  "the  King- 
dom of  Heaven,"  for  there  are  fewer  earth-ties 
for  the  former  to  break.  When  Dr.  Oldenberg 
quotes  the  saying  "to  the  wise  belongeth  the  law, 
not  to  the  foolish,"  and  argues  from  It  that  "for 
children  and  those  who  are  like  children  the 
arms  of  Buddha  are  not  opened,"  he  is  playing 
on  the  word  "wise."  The  wisdom  w^hich  Buddha 
magnified  was,  not  the  wisdom  of  the  Intellectual, 
the  learned,  the  cultured,  but  the  wisdom  of  those 
who  have  taught  themselves,  by  walking  in  the 
Path  of  Life,  to  distinguish  between  shadows 
and  realities.  The  simplicity  of  Buddha's  ethical 
code  brings  it  within  the  reach  of  the  simplest 
natures.  It  is  surely  open  to  those  "who  are  like 
children"  to  be  kind  to  their  fellow-men,  to  ab- 
stain from  envy  and  covetousness,  to  control  the 
lusts  of  the  flesh,  to  be  truthful  In  word  and  deed. 
If  there  are  heights  to  be  climbed  beyond  those 
which  the  "child-like"  can  dream  of,  the  soul  will 
not  be  asked  to  attempt  these  until,  by  the  prac- 
tice of  the  life  of  simple  goodness,  it  has  grown 
strong  enough  for  the  more  arduous  task.     The 


98         THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

greatness  of  Buddha  as  a  teacher  is  proved  by 
the  fact  that  his  scheme  of  Hfe, — so  simple  and 
yet  so  complex,  so  obviously  and  yet  so  pro- 
foundly true,  so  modest  in  its  aims  and  yet  so 
daringly  ambitious,  so  moderate  and  yet  so  ex- 
travagant in  the  demands  that  it  makes  on  our 
spiritual  resources, — provides  for  the  needs  of  all 
men,  in  all  stages  of  development,  of  all  moulds 
of  character,  of  all  types  of  mind. 

There  is  one  feature  of  Buddha's  teaching 
which  demands  our  special  attention  because  it 
seems  to  pervade,  like  an  atmosphere,  the  whole 
of  his  scheme  of  life.  We  know  from  experience 
that  our  actions  produce  far-reaching  conse- 
quences which  we  can  follow  out,  both  laterally 
and  lineally,  to  a  considerable  distance.  We 
know,  for  example,  that  our  actions  affect  the 
material  conditions  of  our  own  and  of  other 
lives;  that  they  produce  social  consequences 
which  have  a  wide  circle  of  disturbance;  that 
they  affect,  for  good  or  for  evil,  our  own  charac- 
ters, and — to  a  lesser  extent — the  characters  of 
those  with  whom  we  are  much  in  contact.  We 
know  also,  if  wx  take  the  trouble  to  consider 
the  matter,  that  these  consequences  are  the  nat- 
ural and  necessary  effects  of  causes  which  our  ac- 
tion sets  in  motion ;  and,  if  we  follow  out  this  line 
of  thought,  we  shall  probably  come  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  whole  moral  world,  under  both  its 


THE  TEACHING  OF  BUDDHA      99 

aspects — the  outward  and  the  inward — is,  like 
the  physical  world,  under  the  dominion  of  nat- 
ural law.  It  was  to  this  aspect  of  morality  that 
Buddha  attached  supreme  importance.  Accord- 
ing to  the  law  of  Karma,  which  he  was  not  the 
first  to  formulate  but  which  he  unreservedly  ac- 
cepted, the  consequences  of  a  man's  action — fore- 
most among  which  is  its  effect  on  his  character — 
follow  him,  not  merely  through  life  (in  the  vul- 
gar sense  of  the  word)  but  also  from  life  to  life, 
until  they  have  exhausted  their  influence. 

"The  Books  say  well,  my  Brother !  each  man's  life 
The  outcome  of  his  former  living  is."* 

What  we  have  done  has  made  us  what  we  are. 
What  we  are  doing  is  moulding  our  character 
and  determining  the  direction  of  its  develop- 
ment. When  a  man  dies,  he  takes  his  character 
away  with  him.  When  he  returns  to  earth,  he 
brings  his  character  back  with  him, — a  character 
which  determines  the  very  nature  of  his  material 
surroundings,  for  the  re-incarnating  soul  seeks 
(according  to  the  doctrine  of  Karma) ,  or  has  as- 
signed to  it,  the  particular  environment  which  is 
at  once  most  in  keeping  with  its  nature  and  most 
suitable  for  its  development. 

''That  which  ye  sow,  ye  reap.     See  yonder  fields ! 
The  sesamum  was  sesamum,  the  corn 
Was  corn.     The  Silence  and  the  Darkness  knew  ! 
So  is  a  man's  fate  born, 

"He  cometh,  reaper  of  the  things  he  sowed,  .  .  .  "* 
*"The  Light  of  Asia,"  by  Sir  Edwin  Arnold. 


loo      THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

The  Idea  that  pervades  the  whole  of  Buddha's 
teaching  Is  that  whatever  we  sow  we  must  reap ; 
in  particular,  that  nothing  can  come  between  our 
conduct  and  its  inward  consequences;  that  every 
thought,  every  word,  every  deed  is  either  making 
or  marring  us;  in  fine,  that  our  spiritual  destiny, 
which  after  all  is  our  real  destiny,  is  In  our  own 
hands. 

With  characteristic  wisdom  Buddha  made  no 
attempt  to  reconcile  human  freedom  with  the  su- 
premacy of  natural  law.  He  probably  saw  that 
the  opposition  of  freedom  to  law  Is  a  false  antith- 
esis,— one  of  the  fatal  by-products  of  the  dual- 
ism of  ordinary  thought.  One  who  looked  at 
things  from  the  standpoint  of  the  philosophy  of 
the  Upanlshads  would  know  that  the  free-will 
riddle,  which  has  tied  Western  thought  Into  so 
many  desperate  tangles.  Is  a  mere  "Idol  of  the 
Cave."  He  would  know  that  the  Real  or  High- 
est Self — being,  ex  hypothesi,  universal  and  eter- 
nal, and  therefore  exempt  from  all  external  con- 
straint— is  absolutely  free.  He  would  know  that 
the  Real  Self  Is  present  in  potency  in  each  indi- 
vidual life,  and  that  every  "living  soul"  Is,  there- 
fore, potentially  free.  He  would  know,  further, 
that  the  development  of  the  soul,  in  the  direction 
of  Its  own  true  self,  is  ahvays  marked  by  the  out- 
growth of  freedom ;  and  he  w^ould  infer  from  this 
that  freedom  varies.  In  the  degree  of  its  develop- 
ment, from  soul  to  soul,  and  that,  speaking  gen- 


THE  TEACHING  OF  BUDDHA    loi 

erally,  It  is  lost  or  won  by  conduct.  But  though 
no  man  is  absolutely  free,  and  though  in  most 
men  freedom  has  but  a  rudimentary  existence, 
he  would  realise  that  the  best  way  to  foster  its 
growth  is  to  postulate  its  existence  and  appeal  to 
it,  as  the  wise  teacher  always  appeals  (though 
here  too  he  is  probably  appealing  to  what  has 
but  a  rudimentary  existence)  to  a  man's  better 
self.  In  fine,  far  from  teaching  that  freedom  is 
incompatible  with  law,  he  would  realise  that  the 
law  of  the  growth  of  freedom — the  seemingly 
paradoxical  law  that  freedom,  without  which 
moral  action  is  impossible,  is  itself  generated  by 
moral  action — is  one  of  the  master  laws  of  hu- 
man life.  Whether  Buddha  did  or  did  not  ac- 
cept the  ideas  of  the  Upanishads,  Is  a  question 
which  will  presently  be  considered.  Meanwhile, 
It  is  enough  to  know  that,  with  his  own  practical 
ends  in  view,  he  not  only  postulated  freedom 
in  man,  but — by  bringing  the  Inward  life  under 
the  dominion  of  natural  law,  and  so  excluding 
from  it  all  extraneous  influences — he  laid  a  tre- 
mendous burden  on  the  human  will;  for  he  told 
men  that  it  rested  with  them,  and  with  them  only, 
to  determine  what  course  the  process  of  their 
development  should  take,  and  how  long  their 
pilgrimage  on  earth  (from  life  to  life)  should 
last. 

Now  the  first  and  last  of  Nature's  laws  is  that 
of  growth;  and  the  teacher  who  brings  the  inner 


102       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

life  of  man  under  the  dominion  of  natural  law 
brings  It  also,  by  Implication,  under  the  domin- 
ion of  the  law  of  growth.  Wherever  there  is 
life  there  is  growth;  In  other  words,  there  is  a 
gradual  passage  from  embryonic  existence  to  ma- 
turity, from  the  seed-state,  in  which  all  the  po- 
tentialities of  future  perfection  are  wrapped  up, 
to  perfection  Itself, — the  perfection  of  the  partic- 
ular species  or  type.  This  law  applies  to  the 
self,  not  less  than  to  the  animal  or  the  plant. 
Indeed,  it  applies  first  and  foremost  to  the  self, 
and  applies  to  the  living  things  that  surround  us 
because,  and  just  so  far  as,  they  too  are  manifes- 
tations of  the  one  self-evolving  life.  There  Is, 
however,  a  vital  difference  between  the  growth 
of  the  soul  and  the  growth  of  any  animal  or 
plant.  "The  lilies  of  the  field  .  .  .  toil  not, 
neither  do  they  spin :  and  yet  .  .  .  Solomon  in 
all  his  glory  was  not  arrayed  like  one  of  these." 
But  If  the  soul  Is  to  be  arrayed  in  glory  it  must 
both  toil  and  spin.  "Which  of  you,"  asks  Christ, 
"by  taking  thought  can  add  one  cubit  unto  his 
stature?"  Buddha's  teaching  bases  Itself  on  the 
assumption  that  by  taking  thought  we  can  add  to 
our  spiritual  stature,  that  the  soul  can  make  itself 
grow.  Buddha  would,  I  think,  if  we  could 
question  him,  pass  on  from  can  to  must.  He 
would  say  that,  when  a  certain  stage  in  our  de- 
velopment has  been  reached,  the  soul  can  make 
no  further  growth  except  what  it  wills  to  make, 


THE  TEACHING  OF  BUDDHA    103 

that  It  Is  only  by  the  action  of  the  will — itself  one 
of  Nature's  master  "streams  of  tendency" — that 
the  expansive  forces  of  Nature  which  are  at  work 
in  the  soul  can  be  co-ordinated  and  made  effect- 
ive. He  would  say  that  the  power  of  the  soul  to 
make  Itself  grow  Is  the  very  fruit  of  the  whole 
previous  process  of  its  growth;  that  its  presence 
is  the  proof  that  the  process  has  (thus  far)  been 
successfully  accomplished;  that  If  it  be  wanting, 
the  preliminary  process  of  growth  has  not  been 
carried  far  enough;  that  if,  having  been  won. 
It  has  become  atrophied  through  disuse,  the 
growth  of  the  soul  has  been  arrested  and  the 
counter-process  of  degeneration  has  begun. 

That  we  may  the  better  realise  the  meaning 
and  ulterior  bearing  of  this  conception,  let  us 
contrast  It  with  the  conception  which  has  long 
dominated  the  ethical  philosophy  of  the  West. 
Owing  to  the  myopia  of  the  Western  mind,  the 
doctrine  that  the  soul  can  work  out  its  eternal 
destiny  In  a  single  earth-life  has  been  able  to  win 
general  acceptance.  This  doctrine  is  obvious- 
ly Incompatible  with  the  idea  that  the  destiny 
of  the  soul  Is  to  be  achieved  by  the  actual  vital 
process  of  growth;  for  it  stands  to  reason  that, 
In  the  natural  order  of  things,  neither  utter  de- 
pravity nor  absolute  perfection  can  be  achieved 
In  the  brief  space  of  a  single  life.  How  then  Is 
"salvation"  to  be  won?  Israel,  from  whom  the 
Western  mind  inherited  its  popular  philosophy, 


104       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

persuaded  himself  that  salvation  was  to  be  won 
by  obedience  to  a  formal  Law.  This  Law  was 
the  work  of  the  supernatural  God,  by  whom  it 
was  miraculously  delivered  to  man.  There  was 
no  reason  why  all  or  even  many  of  its  com- 
mandments should  be  moral,  in  the  stricter  sense 
of  the  word.  The  supernatural  God,  whose  ways 
are  ex  hypothesi  inscrutable,  might,  for  reasons  of 
his  own,  order  man  to  do  things  which  were  ap- 
parently trivial  or  unreasonable.  If  he  did,  man 
must  obey.  Apart  from  this,  there  was  a  special 
reason  why  many  of  the  commandments  of  the 
Jewish  Law  should  be  non-moral.  The  frailty 
of  man  is  such  that  he  is  always  liable  to  disobey 
God.  Disobedience  is  hateful  to  God,  and  draws 
down  his  wrath  upon  the  sinner.  In  order  to 
appease  God  and  avert  his  wrath,  man  must  offer 
up  something  which  he  himself  especially  values, 
— a  bullock,  a  he-goat,  or  whatever  the  victim 
might  be.  Thus  the  idea  of  propitiation  through 
sacrifice  is  bound  up  with  the  idea  of  salvation 
through  obedience  to  a  divinely  formulated 
Law.  Sacrificial  observances,  being  an  impor- 
tant part  of  man's  life,  must  be  duly  and  formal- 
ly regulated.  In  other  words,  ceremonial  direc- 
tions must  always  form  an  essential  part  of  a 
Law  which  has  come  to  man  from  a  supernatural 
source.  Nov/  it  is  obvious  that  in  matters  of 
ceremonial  punctilio  there  can  be  no  inward 
standard  of  right  and  wrong.  Correctness  of  out- 


THE  TEACHING  OF  BUDDHA    105 

ward  action  Is  all  that  Is  asked  for;  but  absolute 
correctness  Is  Indispensable,  and  the  general  Idea 
that  action  must  be  outwardly  correct  If  It  Is  to 
please  God  easily  spreads  from  the  ceremonial 
to  the  more  strictly  moral  side  of  the  Law.  In 
the  attempt  to  define  correctness  with  perfect  ac- 
curacy, rules  and  sub-rules  spring  up  In  rank 
profusion,  until  at  last  the  burden  of  legalism 
threatens  to  extinguish  spiritual  life. 

This  Is  what  happened  to  Israel  In  the  days 
of  his  national  decadence.  Christianity  Inherited 
his  Ideas,  but  rejected  the  Intolerable  burden  of 
his  Law.  It  Inherited  the  Idea  of  salvation  be- 
ing won  by  obedience;  but  It  started,  under  the 
stress  of  Christ's  vivifying  Influence,  by  assuming 
that  the  Law  which  God  wished  men  to  obey 
was  mainly.  If  not  wholly,  moral.  To  obey  a 
moral  law  Is,  however,  even  more  difficult  than 
to  obey  a  ceremonial  law;  and  In  the  one  case,  as 
in  the  other,  the  penalty  of  disobedience,  when 
the  Law  comes  from  God,  Is  eternal  death. 
How  then  was  the  wrath  of  God  to  be  averted 
from  disobedient  man?  "By  the  Sacrifice  of 
Christ,  the  Mediator  between  God  and  Man," 
Is  the  answer  which  Christian  theology  gave 
and  still  gives  to  this  question.  In  the  Catholic 
Church  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  is  perpetually  re- 
peated by  the  priest.  In  the  Protestant  Churches 
the  Sacrifice  Is  supposed  to  have  been  performed 
once  and  for  all;  and  faith  In  the  efficacy  of  the 


io6      THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

Cross  opens  the  door  of  salvation  to  the  believer. 
The  re-appearance — the  Inevitable  re-appearance 
— of  the  sacrificial  Idea  In  the  religions  of  the 
West  tended,  for  obvious  reasons,  to  discredit 
morality  and  to  substitute  machinery  for  life.  A 
man  might  conceivably  have  climbed  to  the  high- 
est pinnacle  of  virtue  (In  the  human  sense  of  the 
word),  he  might  even  have  climbed  to  the  high- 
est level  of  holiness  (In  the  inward  and  spiritual 
sense  of  the  word) ,  and  yet  be  doomed  to  eternal 
perdition,  either  because  he  had  no  faith  In  the 
efficacy  of  the  Sacraments  of  the  Church  or  be- 
cause he  rejected  the  doctrine  of  the  Imputed 
righteousness  of  Christ.  Contrariwise,  a  man 
might  have  sinned  deeply,  basely,  and  consist- 
ently, and  yet,  having  made  a  late  repentance,  be 
forgiven — and  therefore  "saved" — for  Christ's 
sake.  Where  such  anomalies  were  possible,  there 
could  be  no  causal  connection  between  conduct 
and  Its  results.  The  doctrine  of  forgiveness  of 
sin  has  ever  tended  to  demoralise  human  life, 
by  undermining  the  Idea  that  virtue  Is  rewarded 
by  virtue,  and  vice  punished  by  vice.  A  Heaven 
In  the  future  is  reserved  by  official  Christianity 
for  those  who  fulfil  certain  clearly  prescribed 
conditions;  a  Hell  In  the  future,  for  those  who 
neglect  to  fulfil  them.  But  neither  in  Heaven  nor 
in  Hell  does  a  man  reap  the  actual  crop  that  he 
has  sown.  If  he  did,  the  false  dualism  of  Heaven 
and  Hell  would  disappear,  and  there  would  be 


THE  TEACHING  OF  BUDDHA    107 

millions  of  after-states  Instead  of  only  two.  Even 
when  Hell  has  been  fairly  earned  It  may  con- 
ceivably be  evaded,  for  It  Is  always  open  to  the 
sinner  to  fall  back  on  the  uncovenanted  mercies 
of  God. 

From  first  to  last,  this  theory  of  things — a 
theory  from  which  the  Ideas  of  natural  law  and 
natural  growth  are  conspicuously  absent — Is 
wholly  foreign  to  Buddha's  scheme  of  life. 
Miraculous  intervention,  whatever  form  it  may 
take,  Is  beyond  the  horizon  of  his  thought.  The 
sacrificial  system,  ceremonialism,  sacerdotalism, 
legalism, — all  these  he  entirely  rejects.  Correct 
outward  action  counts  for  nothing  In  his  eyes. 
The  Inward  motive  to  and  the  Inward  conse- 
quences of  action  are  all  that  he  regards.  Media- 
tors count  for  nothing.  Redeemers  count  for 
nothing.  Priests  count  for  nothing.  Casuists 
and  such  like  spiritual  directors  count  for  noth- 
ing. The  most  that  one  man  can  do  for  other 
men  Is  to  tell  them  of  the  Path  of  Life — the 
broad  Path  of  self-development  through  self- 
surrender — and  give  them  general  directions  for 
finding  and  following  It.  The  true  Saviour  of 
men  Is  he  who  does  this.  But  each  man  In  turn 
must  walk  In  the  Path,  by  using  his  own  sight, 
his  own  strength,  his  own  judgment,  his  own 
will. 

"Therefore,  O  Ananda!  be  ye  lamps  unto 
yourselves.     Be  ye  a  refuge  to  yourselves.     Be- 


io8       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

take  yourselves  to  no  external  refuge. 
Look  not   for   refuge   to   anyone   except  your- 
selves."   External  rewards  are  not  to  be  looked 
for.     External  penalties  are  not  to  be  feared. 

It*  knows  not  wrath  nor  pardon ;  utter  true 
Its  measures  mete,  its  faultless  balance  weighs ; 

Times  are  as  nought,  to-morrow  it  will  judge, 
Or  after  many  days.t 

Virtue  rewards  itself  by  strengthening  the  will, 
by  subduing  unworthy  desire,  by  generating 
knowledge  of  reality,  by  giving  inward  peace. 
Sin  punishes  itself  by  weakening  the  will,  by 
inflaming  unworthy  desire,  by  generating  de- 
lusions, by  breeding  fever  and  unrest.  For  sin 
to  be  "forgiven"  is  as  impossible  as  for  virtue 
to  forego  its  reward.  To  walk  in  the  Path  is 
its  own  reward;  for  the  Path  is  lit  by  the  ever- 
deepening  foreglow  of  its  goal.  To  depart  from 
the  Path  is  its  own  punishment;  for  the  erring 
steps  must,  at  whatever  cost,  be  retraced.  Must 
be  retraced, — for  all  the  forces  of  Nature  are 
making  for  the  growth  of  the  soul,  as  surely  as 
in  springtime  all  the  forces  of  Nature  are  mak- 
ing for  the  outgrowth  of  flower  and  leaf.  It 
is    Nature!    herself    that,    acting    through    his 

*The  divine  Power  which  is  at  the  heart  of  the  Universe. 

■{■"The  Light  of  Asia,"  by  Sir  Edwin  Arnold. 

tWhen  we  name  the  word  Nature  we  get  to  the  root  of 
the  whole  matter.  To  walk  in  the  Path  is  to  ally  oneself 
with  the  deeper  forces  of  Nature.  This  is  its  reward.  To 
depart  from  the  Path  is  to  fight  against  the  deeper  forces 
of  Nature.     This  is  its  punishment. 


THE  TEACHING  OF  BUDDHA    109 

sense  of  right  and  wrong,  constrains  him  who  has 
left  the  Path  to  seek  to  regain  it.  But  the  Path 
is  not  to  be  regained,  except  by  a  steep  and  ar- 
duous ascent;  and  the  longer  the  return  to  it  is 
delayed,  the  more  steep  and  arduous  will  the  as- 
cent prove  to  be. 

This  is,  I  think,  the  most  inward  conception 
of  life,  and  the  most  intrinsic  standard  of  moral 
worth,  that  has  ever  been  presented  to  human 
thought.  When  Christ  says:  "Take  heed  that 
ye  do  not  your  alms  before  men,  to  be  seen  of 
them :  otherwise  ye  have  no  reward  of  your 
Father  which  is  in  Heaven";  when  he  bids  us 
pray  and  fast  in  secret  so  that  we  may  be  reward- 
ed, not  by  the  applause  of  men,  but  by  "the 
Father,  which  seeth  in  secret";  when  the  author 
of  the  "Imitation" — in  some  ways  the  most 
Christ-like  of  all  Christians — reminds  us  that 
"what  each  man  is  in  Thine  eyes,  that  he  is  and 
no  more"; — we  are  taken  as  far  in  the  direction 
of  pure  inwardness  and  intrinsic  reality  as  it  is 
possible  for  men  to  go  who  worship  and  have 
long  worshipped  a  "personal  God."  That  "the 
Father  in  Heaven"  whom  Christ  adored  coin- 
cides, in  the  last  resort,  with  Brahma — the  all- 
knowing,  all-thinking  Self,  the  all-embracing,  all- 
sustaining  Life — is  more  than  probable.  But 
though  the  inspired  teacher,  whose  thoughts 
are  all  poems,  may  be  able  to  purify  and  spirit- 
ualise the  conception  of  a  personal  God,  the  av- 


no      THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

erage  man  Is  quite  sure  to  debase  and  external- 
ise It.  If  we  could  but  listen  to  the  prayers  that 
at  any  moment  were  being  addressed  "In  secret 
to  the  Father  which  seeth  In  secret/'  we  should 
realise  how  widely  popular  thought  had  depart- 
ed from  a  really  Inward  conception  of  life,  and 
from  a  really  Intrinsic  standard  of  moral  worth. 
What  is  unique  in  Buddha's  scheme  of  life  Is 
that  every  influence  which  might  conceivably 
come  between  conduct  and  Its  consequences  Is 
rigidly  excluded.  God  himself — if  we  are  to 
continue  to  think  and  speak  about  God — "knows 
not  wrath  nor  pardon."  But  can  we  continue 
to  think  and  speak  about  so  impersonal  a  God? 
Buddha  must,  I  think,  have  asked  himself  this 
vital  question.  A  great  spiritual  life-work  Is 
always  the  outcome  of  a  great  renunciation;  and 
it  Is  possible  that  what  Buddha  renounced  was 
something  dearer  than  wealth  or  power,  dearer 
even  than  wife  or  child.  The  austere  inward- 
ness of  his  teaching  had  its  counterpart,  as  we 
shall  presently  see,  in  a  deep  silence  about  what 
is  ultimate  and  innermost,  a  silence  which  he 
must  have  Imposed  upon  himself  at  the  begin- 
ning of  his  long  ministry,  and  which  he  never 
broke.* 

*In  this  brief  exposition  of  the  teaching  of  Buddha  I 
have  said  nothing  about  the  "Wheel  of  Life,"  or  "Chain 
of  Causation."  I  have  two  reasons  for  ignoring  it.  The 
first  is  that  it  is  doubtful,  to  say  the  least,  if  it  was  formu- 
lated by  Buddha  himself.  Mr.  H.  C.  Warren,  in  his  learned 
work,   "Buddhism  in  Translation,"  surmises  that  "the  full 


THE  TEACHING  OF  BUDDHA    1 1 1 

formula  in  its  present  shape  is  a  piece  of  patchwork  put 
together  of  two  or  more  that  were  current  in  Buddha's 
time" ;  and,  for  my  own  part,  I  find  it  difficult  to  believe 
that  a  teacher  of  Buddha's  breadth  and  force  of  mind  could 
have  accepted  the  formula  as  a  satisfactory  explanation  of 
the  phenomenon  of  physical  life.  The  second  reason  is 
that  the  formula  does  not  take  us  an  inch  beyond  the  two 
truths  which  Buddha  regarded  as  fundamental, — that  man 
is  bound  to  the  "Wheel  of  Life"  (or  caught  in  the  "Whirl- 
pool of  Rebirth"),  and  that  it  is  possible  for  him  to  free 
himself  from  his  bonds. 

Nor  have  I  said  anything  about  the  belief  which  Buddha 
is  said  to  have  embodied  in  his  teaching, — "that  it  was 
possible  [for  the  disciples]  by  intense  self-absorption  and 
mystic  meditation  to  attain  to  a  condition  of  trance,  in 
which  the  ordinary  conditions  of  material  existence  were 
suspended,"  and  certain  supernormal  powers  (the  "Iddhi") 
were  acquired.  My  reason  for  ignoring  this  belief  is,  not 
that  I  regard  it  as  intrinsically  ridiculous  or  even  as  out  of 
keeping  with  Buddha's  philosophy,  but  that  in  the  attempt 
to  correlate  it  with  his  scheme  of  life  I  should  have  to 
discuss  great  and  burning  questions,  which  could  not  receive 
adequate  treatment  within  the  limits  of  this  work.  To  the 
Western  mind,  drugged  and  stupefied  with  the  idea  of  the 
Supernatural,  the  counter  idea  of  the  Supernormal  in  Na- 
ture conies  with  so  tremendous  a  shock  as  to  deprive  it 
for  the  time  being  of  the  power  of  coherent  thought.  That 
being  so,  it  is  better  that  I  should  ignore  what  is  possibly 
a  vital  aspect  of  Buddha's  teaching,  even  though  my  inter- 
pretation of  his  creed  should  suffer  from  this  enforced 
reticence,  than  that  I  should  handle  a  problem  which  de- 
mands for  its  preliminary  consideration  an  entirely  new 
conception  of  Nature,  and  the  cursory  treatment  of  which 
would  therefore  give  rise  to  perpetual  misunderstanding, 
and  would  serve  no  useful  purpose. 


Chapter   V. 

A  MISREADING  OF  BUDDHA 

SET  forth   In  as  few  words  as  possible, 
Buddha's  message  to  man  Is  an  appeal 
to  him  to  find  his  true  self,  with  all 
that  this  can   give  him — joy,   peace, 
knowledge,  love — by  suppressing  ego- 
ism, with  all  the  desires  and  delusions  on  which  it 
feeds,  and  breaking,  one  by  one,  the  fetters  of 
the  surface  life  and  the  lower  self. 

Those  who  have  followed  me  thus  far  will,  I 
think,  admit  that  Buddha's  scheme  of  life  coin- 
cides, at  all  Its  vital  points,  with  the  scheme  that 
I  worked  out  by  drawing  practical  deductions 
from  the  master  Ideas  of  that  deeply  spiritual 
philosophy  which  found  Its  highest  expression  In 
the  Upanlshads.  One  who  accepted  the  central 
Idea  of  that  philosophy — the  Idea  that  the  Uni- 
versal Soul  is  the  real  self  of  each  one  of  us — 
and  realised  its  spiritual  consequences,  and  who 
at  the  same  time  saw  clearly  that  none  of  the  cur- 
rent modes  of  apprehending  It — the  metaphys- 
ical, the  intuitional,  the  poetical,  the  symbolical 
— was  available  for  ordinary,  unenlightened,  un- 

112 


A  MISREADING  OF  BUDDHA    113 

developed  men,  would  probably  come  to  the  con- 
clusion that,  If  the  world  at  large  was  to  be 
brought  under  the  Influence  of  that  great  spirit- 
ual Idea,  a  practical  interpretation  of  it  must  be 
presented  to  and  followed  by  the  rank  and  file 
of  mankind. 

Such  a  teacher  would  begin  by  appealing  to 
the  very  sense  which  It  was  his  most  cherished 
desire  to  cultivate, — the  sense  of  reality,  which 
is  present  in  embryo  in  every  breast.  He  would 
tell  men  that  life  is  full  of  suffering,  and  that 
the  chief  cause  of  suffering  is  the  Impermanence 
— and  therefore  the  unreality — of  the  objects 
of  man's  desire;  and  he  would  expect  them  to 
assent  to  these  propositions. 

This  Is  what  Buddha  did. 

He  would  explain  to  them  that  the  desire  for 
unreal  things  not  only  caused  suffering  In  this 
or  that  earth-life,  but  also  caused  the  suffering 
to  be  reproduced  In  other  earth-lives, — desire  for 
the  shadows  and  Illusions  of  earth  being  the 
subjective  side  of  the  attractive  force  by  which 
earth  draws  the  unemanclpated  soul  back  to  It- 
self again  and  again;  and  he  would  ask  them  to 
Infer  from  this  that  deliverance  from  suffering 
(now  and  in  the  future)  was  to  be  won  by  the 
subjugation,  and  at  last  by  the  extinction  of 
desire, — not  of  desire  as  such,  but  of  the  base, 
carnal,  worldly,  self-seeking  desires,  which,  by 
keeping  the  soul  In  Ignorance  of  Its  true  nature 


114       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

and  destiny,  cause  It  to  eddy  round  and  round  in 
the  "whirlpool  of  rebirth." 

This  Is  what  Buddha  did. 

He  would  tell  them — though  not  In  so  many 
words — that,  If  their  baser  desires  were  to  be 
subdued,  they  must  practise  self-control  and  cul- 
tivate sympathy;  and,  with  that  end  In  view,  he 
would  give  them  a  few  simple  rules  for  the  con- 
duct of  life, — rules  which  would  provide  for  the 
development  of  self-control  and  sympathy  along 
the  arterial  lines  of  morality,  and  the  authority 
of  which  would  therefore  be  In  a  measure  self- 
evident. 

This  Is  what  Buddha  did. 

For  those  who  had  mastered  their  baser  de- 
sires and  passions,  and  who,  by  a  parallel  process, 
had  cultivated  the  latent  virtues  of  gentleness, 
kindness,  and  compassion,  and,  speaking  gener- 
ally, begun  to  live  in  the  lives  of  others,  he 
would  make  further  provision;  he  would  help 
them  In  various  ways  to  conquer  their  hydra- 
headed  enemy,  the  lower  self;  he  would  teach 
them  to  distinguish  between  the  shadows  and 
the  realities  of  life,  to  rid  themselves  of  every 
self-seeking  desire  and  every  self-affirming  de- 
lusion, to  quench  lust  and  anger,  to  extend  In 
every  direction  the  radiating  light  of  sympathy 
and  good  will. 

This  is  what  Buddha  did. 

He  would  tell  them  that,  when  the  last  taint 


A  MISREADING  OF  BUDDHA    1 1 5 

of  egoism  and  the  last  shadow  of  ignorance  had 
disappeared,  the  happiness  to  which  they  had  al- 
ways had  an  indefeasible  title,  but  a  title  which 
each  man  in  turn  had  to  make  good  for  him- 
self, would  at  last  be  theirs;  that  the  Path  which 
they  had  followed  for  so  long  would  lead  them 
at  last  to  the  fullness  of  knowledge,  the  fullness 
of  peace,  the  fullness  of  love, — and  therefore  to 
unimaginable  bliss. 

This  is  what  Buddha  did. 

But  he  would  impress  on  them  that  they  lived 
in  a  world  in  which  causes  always  produce  their 
natural  and  necessary  effects;  that  the  coMse- 
quences  of  their  conduct  would  therefore  follow 
them  wherever  they  went ;  that  external  rewards 
were  not  to  be  hoped  for;  that  external  punish- 
ments were  not  to  be  dreaded;  that  virtue  was  its 
own  reward  and  vice  its  own  punishment,  in  the 
sense  that  whatever  is  done  or  left  undone  in- 
evitably reacts  upon  the  character,  and,  through 
the  character,  affects  for  weal  or  for  woe  the 
destiny  of  the  soul;  that  interference  from  with- 
out was  in  the  nature  of  things  impossible ;  that 
the  whole  sacrificial  system  was  based  on  a  de- 
lusion; that  ceremonial  observances  were  of  no 
avail; — he  would  teach  them,  in  fine,  that  each 
man  in  turn  must  take  his  life  into  his  own 
hands  and  work  out  his  destiny  for  himself. 

This  is  what  Buddha  did. 

But,  while  he  taught  them  all  this,  he  would 


ii6       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

make  no  attempt  to  explain  to  them  the  deepest 
mysteries  of  existence;  he  would  deliberately  dis- 
connect his  scheme  of  life,  so  far  as  his  own 
exposition  of  it  was  concerned,  from  theology 
and  metaphysics;  he  would  keep  silence  as  to 
what  Is  "ultimate  and  uttermost";  for  he  would 
know  that  the  average  mind  has  no  capacity  for 
deep  thinking,  and  that,  if  he  tried  to  disclose 
to  his  fellow  men  his  ultimate  reasons  for  the 
course  of  life  which  he  wished  them  to  follow, 
they  would  make  nonsense,  first  of  his  philo- 
sophical teaching  and  then  of  his  whole  scheme 
of  life,  giving  themselves  wrong  reasons  for 
eery  thing  that  they  did  or  left  undone,  and  so 
(In  the  last  resort)  misinterpreting  and  misap- 
plying every  detail  of  his  teaching. 

This  too  is  what  Buddha  did  (or  forebore  to 
do) .  That  he  kept  silence  about  "great  matters" 
is  as  certain  as  that  his  ethical  teaching  was  clear, 
coherent,  and  systematic. 

The  coincidences  between  the  two  schemes  of 
life — that  which  Buddha  taught  and  that  which 
follows  logically  (In  the  deeper  sense  of  the 
word)  from  the  philosophy  of  the  Upanlshads — 
are  so  many  and  so  vital  that  they  cannot  be 
ascribed  to  chance.  Even  If  the  age  in  which 
Buddha  lived  had  been  separated  by  a  thousand 
years  from  the  age  which  gave  birth  to  the 
stories  of  Brahma  and  the  Gods,  and  Nachiketas 
and  Death,  we  should  feel  justified,  on  internal 


A  MISREADING  OF  BUDDHA    117 

evidence,  In  concluding  that  Buddha  had  some- 
how or  other  come  under  the  Influence  of  the 
Ideas  which  those  stories  enshrined.  But  we  need 
not  trust  to  Internal  evidence  only.  We  know 
that  the  spiritual  atmosphere  of  India  In  Bud- 
dha's day  was  Impregnated  with  the  Ideas  of  the 
Upanlshads.  We  know  that  those  Ideas  must 
have  appealed  with  peculiar  force  to  a  thinker 
of  Buddha's  exalted  nature,  whether  he  ended 
by  emancipating  himself  from  their  Influence  or 
not.  We  know  that  the  teachers  who  had  ex- 
pounded those  Ideas  had  utterly  failed  to  bring 
them  Into  connection  with  the  dally  life  of  the 
ordinary  man,  and  had  thereby  left  a  gap  In  the 
philosophical  teaching  of  India,  which  was  wait- 
ing to  be  filleci  by  some  master  mind.  The 
cumulative  evidence  aftorded  bv  these  facts, 
added  to  the  Internal  evidence  which  has  already 
been  set  forth  In  detail,  seems  to  point  with  Irre- 
sistible force  to  one  conclusion,  namely  that  Bud- 
dha accepted  the  Idealistic  teaching  of  the  Upan- 
lshads— accepted  It  at  Its  highest  level  and  In  Its 
purest  form — and  took  upon  himself  as  his  life's 
mission  to  fill  the  obvious  gap  In  It, — In  other 
words,  to  make  the  spiritual  Ideas  which  had 
hitherto  been  the  exclusive  possession  of  a  few 
select  souls,  available  for  the  dally  needs  of 
mankind. 

If  this  conclusion  Is  correct,  we  shall  see  In 
Buddhism,  not  a  revolt  against  the  "Brahmanic" 


ii8       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

phllosoph)^  as  such,  but  an  ethical  Interpreta- 
tion of  the  leading  ideas  of  that  philosophy, — 
a  following  out  of  those  ideas,  not  into  the  word- 
built  systems  of  (so-called)  thought  which  the 
metaphysicians  of  the  day  w^ere  constructing 
with  fatal  facility,  but  into  their  practical  conse- 
quences in  the  inner  life  of  man. 

But  is  the  conclusion  correct?  I  must  admit 
at  once  that  there  is  a  preponderance  of  opinion 
against  It.  The  Orientalist  scholars  into  whose 
hands  the  work  of  expounding  the  Ideas  and 
doctrines  of  Buddha  has  perforce  fallen,  seem 
to  be  agreed  in  holding  that  In  Buddhism  the 
mind  of  India  broke  away  from  the  Brahmanic 
line  of  thought.  Some  indeed  go  further  than 
this.  They  tell  us  that  Buddha's  teaching  was 
directly  and  openly  subversive  of  the  "sovereign 
dogmas"  of  Brahmanism.  They  admit  Indeed, 
with  considerable  reluctance,  that  he  believed  in 
re-Incarnation,  but  they  contend  that  he  did  not 
believe  In  any  re-incarnating  self  or  ego;  and 
they  accept  on  his  behalf  all  the  philosophical 
consequences  of  this  sw^eeping  denial,  the  last  of 
these  being  that  Nirvana — the  tI\o5  reXsioraTov 
of  Buddhist  effort  and  aspiration — Is  the  prelude 
to  annihilation. 

Foremost  among  the  distinguished  scholars 
who  have  satisfied  them.selves  that  Buddha  was 
a  negative  dogmatist — a  metaphysician,  whose 


A  MISREADING  OF  BUDDHA    1 19 

propositions  were  all  fundamental  negations — Is 
Dr.  Rhys  Davids,  a  writer  on  Buddhism  whose 
works  enjoy  a  well-deserved  popularity,  and 
whose  influence  In  determining  the  attitude  of 
contemporary  opinion  towards  the  Buddhist 
scheme  of  life  is  very  great.  In  the  following 
passages  from  his  writings  his  own  attitude  is 
clearly  defined.  After  expounding  the  Four 
Sacred  Truths,  he  goes  on  to  say,  "The  remark- 
able fact  is  that  we  have  here  set  forth  a  view 
of  religion  entirely  Independent  of  the  soul  theo- 
ries on  which  all  the  various  philosophies  and 
religions  then  current  In  India  were  based." 
Speaking  of  re-Incarnation  he  says,  "There  is  no 
passage  of  a  soul  or  I  in  any  sense"^  from  the  one 
life  to  the  other.  Their  [the  Buddhists']  whole 
view  of  the  matter  Is  Independent  of  the  time- 
honoured  soul-theories  held  in  common  by  all 
the  followers  of  every  other  creed.'*  Speaking 
of  the  Interest  that  the  Brahmans  took  In  Bud- 
dha's speculations,  he  says  that  "his  [Buddha's] 
rejection  of  the  soul-theory  and  of  all  that  it 
Involved  was  really  Incompatible  with  the  whole 
theology  of  the  Vedas."  Elsew^here  he  says  that 
no  other  school  of  religious  thought  Is  "quite 
so  frankly  and  entirely  Independent  as  Buddhism 
of  the  two  theories  of  God  and  the  soul."  Other 
significant  passages  In  his  writings  are  the  fol- 

*In  all   these  extracts  from  Dr.   Rhys  Davids'  writings 
the  italics  are  mine. 


I20       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

lowing:  "The  victory  to  be  gained  by  the  de- 
struction of  ignorance  is,  in  Gautama's  view,  a 
victory  which  can  be  gained  and  enjoyed  In  this 
life  and  in  this  life  only."  "Man  Is  never  the 
same  for  two  consecutive  moments,  and  there  is 
within  him  no  abiding  principle  whatever.'* 
"Another  proof  of  the  prominence  of  the  doc- 
trine of  the  non-existence  of  the  soul  Is  the  fact 
that  the  Brahmans  who  have  misunderstood 
many  less  important  or  less  clearly  expressed 
tenets  of  Buddhism  recognise  this  as  one  of  Its 
distinctive  features."  "Would  It  be  possible  in 
a  more  complete  and  categorical  manner  to  deny 
that  there  is  any  soul — anything  of  any  kind 
which  continues  to  exist,  in  any  manner,  after 
death?"  If  there  is  no  soul  or  ego,  In  any  sense 
of  the  word,  what  Is  the  meaning  of  Nirvana? 
According  to  Dr.  Rhys  Davids,  it  is  a  state  of 
blissful  repose  which  precedes  annihilation,  with 
which,  however,  It  must  not  be  confounded. 
"Death,  utter  death,  with  no  new  life  to  fol- 
low, Is  then  the  result  of,  but  It  is  not  Nirvana." 
These  passages  make  It  clear  that  Buddha,  ac- 
cording to  Dr.  Rhys  Davids'  estimate  of  him, 
was  a  daring  speculative  thinker  who  had 
thought  out  all  the  master  problems  of  existence 
and  solved  them  to  his  own  satisfaction,  his  so- 
lution In  every  case,  or  rather  In  the  one  case 
which  Is  decisive  of  the  rest,  being  an  unqualified 
negation.     The  uncompromising  denial  of  the 


A  MISREADING  OF  BUDDHA    121 

soul,  which  Dr.  Rhys  Davids  ascribes  to  Buddha, 
makes  an  end  of  all  metaphysical  speculation. 
If  there  Is  no  soul,  if  the  sense  of  self*  Is  wholly 
delusive,  we  may  know,  without  further  Inquiry, 
that  there  Is  no  God  (In  any  spiritual  sense  of 
the  word),  no  Inward  life,  no  former  life,  no 
after  life.  But  what  of  the  outward  things 
which  the  (so-called)  self  perceives  and,  in  the 
act  of  perceiving,  certifies  as  existent,  and  even 
provisionally  certifies  as  real?  According  to 
Western  thought  these  are  real  things;  and  the 
physical  force  which  Is  behind  them  all,  is  the 
fundamental  reality  w^hlch  it  Is  the  aim  of  specu- 
lation to  discover.  But,  according  to  Buddha, 
outward  things  are  all  shadows  and  delusions; 
his  primary  aim,  as  a  moral  teacher,  being  to 
deliver  men  from  belief  in  their  reality, — a  belief 
which  is  the  source  of  all  error,  sorrow,  and  suf- 
fering. It  Is  clear  then  that,  if  Dr.  Rhys  Davids* 
interpretation  of  Buddha's  metaphysical  system 
is  correct,  he  (Buddha)  was  not  a  materialist, 
like  those  modern  thinkers  with  whom  he  may 
seem  to  have  much  in  common,  but  a  philosophi- 
cal nihilist,  who  could  find  no  centre  of  reality, 
no  principle  of  permanence,  in  that  whirl  and 
flux  of  phenomena  which  for  him  constituted  the 
Universe. 

It  is  true  that  in  more  than  one  passage  in  his 

*By  the  "sense  of  self"  I  mean  that  sense  of  one's  own 
intrinsic  reality,  indivisible  unity,  and  identity  through  all 
changes,  which  is  of  the  essence  of  self-consciousness. 


122      THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

American  lectures  Dr.  Rhys  Davids  says  that 
Buddha  denied  the  existence  of  the  soul  in  the 
Christian  sense  of  the  word:  and  one  might  infer 
from  this  that  it  was  open  to  him  to  believe  in 
the  soul  in  some  other  sense  of  the  word, — for 
example  in  the  Brahmanic,  which  is  diametrically 
opposite  to  the  "Christian."*  But  whether  Dr. 
Rhys  Davids  has  himself  failed  to  distinguish 
between  the  Christian  and  the  Brahmanic  theo- 
ries of  the  soul,  or  whether  he  regards  the  former 
as  the  only  soul-theory  which  is  In  any  degree 
compatible  with  mental  sanity,  I  cannot  pretend 
to  say.  What  is  certain  is  that  he  regards  Bud- 
dha's rejection  of  the  soul-theory  as  thorough- 
going and  uncompromising.  The  words  "There 
is  no  passage  of  a  soul  or  I  in  any  sense  from  the 
one  life  to  the  other.  Their  [the  Buddhists'] 
whole  view  of  the  matter  is  independent  of  the 
time-honoured  soul-theories  held  in  common  by  all 
the  followers  of  every  other  creedy^  are  decisive 
on  this  point.  Besides,  it  stands  to  reason  that  if 
"death,  utter  death^*  is  the  inevitable  sequel  to 
Nirvana,  there  is  no  room  in  Buddha's  philos- 
ophy for  the  soul,  in  any  sense  of  the  word.f 

*By  "Christian,"  Dr.  Rhys  Davids  evidently  means  what 
belongs  to  the  popular  theology  of  Christendom,  not  what 
belongs  to  the  inner  creed  of  Christ. 

t  Except  perhaps  in  that  singular  sense  which  the  "new 
psychology"  is  said  to  have  officially  endorsed,  and  which 
Dr.  Paul  Carus  has  elucidated  by  defining  the  soul  as  "the 
totality  of  our  thoughts,  sensations  and  aspirations,"  as  "a 
system  of  sensation,  impulses  and  motor  ideas,"  as  "a  bun- 
dle  of    samskaras,"    and   so    forth.      I   confess    that   these 


A  MISREADING  OF  BUDDHA    123 

My  reason  for  setting  forth  in  detail  Dr. 
Rhys  Davids'  interpretation  of  Buddha's  philoso- 
phy is  that  it  happens  to  be  the  one  interpreta- 
tion which  has  found  its  way  into  the  outer 
world.  Ask  the  man  in  the  street  what  he  knows 
of  Buddha.  He  will  tell  you  that  Buddha  was  a 
pessimist  and  an  atheist,  who  denied  the  soul, 
denied  a  supreme  cause,  denied  that  the  world 
had  any  centre  of  reality,  and  taught  his  fol- 
lowers to  look  forward  to  annihilation  as  the 
final  deliverance  from  the  woes  of  earth.  This, 
if  not  identical  with  Dr.  Rhys  Davids'  teaching, 
is  at  least  an  echo  of  it.  Dr.  Paul  Carus,  who 
has  taken  upon  himself  to  popularise  Buddhism 
and  to  vindicate  it  from  the  disparaging  criticism 
of  its  ''Christian  critics,"  is  in  the  main  in  full 
agreement  with  Dr.  Rhys  Davids,  but  is  more 
ready  than  that  distinguished  scholar  to  accept  the 
logical  consequences  of  the  dynamically  atomistic 
philosophy  which  he  ascribes  to  Buddha.  Even 
the  author  of  ''The  Soul  of  a  People,"  a  writer 
whose  deep  and  delicate  sympathy  with,  and  in- 
sight into,  the  "soul"  or  inner  life  of  a  Bud- 
dhist people,  besides  investing  his  book  with  a 

phrases  convey  no  meaning  to  my  mind.  One  might  as 
well  say  that  an  oak-tree  is  the  "totality"  of  its  own  leaves 
and  acorns,  that  a  great  poem  is  a  "system"  of  "feet"  and 
phrases,  that  the  Government  of  a  country  is  a  "bundle"  of 
portfolios  and  bUiebooks.  (The  new  psychology,  if  I  may 
judge  from  Dr.  Paul  Carus'  exposition  of  it,  bases  its  phi- 
losophy on  the  vulgar  confusion  between  matter  and  sub- 
stance. See  "Buddhism  and  Its  Christian  Critics,"  passim, 
and,  in  particular,  the  middle  paragraph  of  p.  80.) 


124      THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

charm  which  Is  all  Its  own,  entitles  him  to  a 
respectful  hearing  whenever  he  speaks,  In  general 
terms,  about  Buddhism, — even  he,  when  treating 
of  the  popular  belief  In  re-incarnation,  must  needs 
shake  his  head  over  the  credulity  of  the  good, 
simple  people,  and  remind  them  that  belief  in  the 
survival  of  the  "I"  Is  ^'opposed  to  all  Bud- 
dhism," the  real  teaching  of  Buddha — "that 
what  survives  death  Is  not  the  T  but  only  the 
results  of  its  action" — "being  too  deep  for  them 
to  hold." 

Such  unanimity  on  the  part  of  the  popular  ex- 
ponents of  Buddhism  points  to  a  large  measure 
of  unanimity  on  the  part  of  Its  more  learned  in- 
terpreters and  commentators.  That  Dr.  Rhys 
Davids  has  given  voice  to  a  general  consensus  of 
opinion  on  the  part  of  the  Western  students  of 
Buddhism,  can  scarcely  be  doubted.  From  Bar- 
thelemy  Salnt-HIlalre  to  H.  C.  Warren,  the 
Orientalists  of  Europe  and  America  are  agreed, 
with  one  or  two  notable  exceptions.  In  holding 
that  Buddha  denied  the  Ego  and  regarded  Nir- 
vana as  the  prelude  to  annihilation;  while  the 
fact  that  the  South  Buddhist  Church  has  given 
Dr.  Paul  Carus  a  certificate  of  orthodoxy  sug- 
gests that  on  these  points  the  general  trend  of 
official  opinion  in  the  Buddhist  world  itself  coin- 
cides, mutatis  mutandis,  with  the  general  trend 
of  learned  opinion  In  the  West. 


A  MISREADING  OF  BUDDHA    125 

What  evidence  can  Dr.  Rhys  Davids,  and 
those  who  think  with  him,  give  in  support  of 
their  thesis  that  Buddha  was  a  negative  dog- 
matist 

"Who  dropped  his  plummet  down  the  broad 
Deep  Universe,  and  said  'No  God'* — 
Finding  no  bottom." 

There  Is  this  Initial  difficulty  In  the  way  of  our 
accepting  Dr.  Rhys  Davids'  Interpretation  of 
Buddha's  metaphysical — as  distinguished  from 
his  ethical — philosophy,  that,  on  our  author's  own 
showing,  Buddha  was  a  true  and  consistent  agnos- 
tic, who  was  so  far  from  dogmatising  about  what 
is  ultimate  that  he  regarded  all  metaphysical 
speculation  as  vain  and  foolish,  and  all  metaphys- 
ical strife  as  morally  wrong.  *'There  were  a 
certain  number  of  questions  to  which  It  was  his 
habit  to  refuse  to  reply.  These  were  questions 
the  discussion  of  which,  in  his  opinion,  was  apt  to 
lead  the  mind  astray,  and  so  far  from  being  con- 
ducive to  a  growth  in  insight,  would  be  a  hin- 
drance to  the  only  thing  which  was  supremely 
worth  aiming  at — the  perfect  life  in  Arahat-shlp. 
Such  questions  as:  What  shall  I  be  during  the 
ages  of  the  future?  Do  I  after  all  exist,  or  am 
I  not?  are  regarded  as  worse  than  unprofitable, 
and  the  Buddha  not  only  refused  to  discuss 
them,  but  held  that  the  tendency,  the  desire  to 

*To  deny  the  Ego  is  to  deny  the  Self,  the  Universal  Self 
(or  God)  in  Nature,  and  the  individualised  Self  (or  Soul) 
in  Man. 


126      THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

discuss  them  was  a  weakness,  and  that  the  an- 
swers usually  given  were  a  delusion."  With 
these  words,  which  are  to  be  found  in  Dr.  Rhys 
Davids'  American  lectures  on  Buddhism,  we  may 
compare  Dr.  Oldenberg's  statement  that  "the 
most  serious  obstacle  in  the  way  of  our  compre- 
hending Buddhist  dogmas  is  the  silence  with 
which  everything  is  passed  over  which  does  not 
lead  to  the  separation  from  the  earthly,  to  the 
subjection  of  all  desire,  to  the  cessation  of  the 
transitory,  to  quietude,  knowledge,  illumination, 
to  Nirvana."  Both  writers  are  agreed  in  hold- 
ing that  the  scheme  of  life  which  Buddhism  set 
before  its  votaries  was  in  all  probability  formu- 
lated by  Buddha  himself;  but  both  writers  are 
also  agreed  in  holding  that,  though  Buddha  gave 
his  followers  what  I  may  call  the  penultimate  (or 
perhaps  the  ante-penultimate)  reasons  for  enter- 
ing "the  Path,"  he  not  only  carefully  abstained 
from  giving  them  the  ultimate  reasons,  but  posi- 
tively forbade  them  to  speculate  as  to  what  those 
reasons  might  be.  What  then  becomes  of  Dr. 
Rhys  Davids'  confident  and  often  repeated  state- 
ment that  Buddha's  philosophy  centred  in  a  fun- 
damental denial?  To  deny  the  Ego  is  to  gather 
all  metaphysical  problems  into  one  pregnant  ques- 
tion, and  to  answer  that  question  with  an  everlast- 
ing "No."  In  other  words,  it  is  to  say  the  last 
word  that  can  be  said  in  metaphysical  specula- 
tion.    Is  it  possible  for  the  same  thinker  to  be,  at 


A  MISREADING  OF  BUDDHA    127 

the  same  time  and  on  the  same  plane  of  thought, 
a  true  agnostic  and  an  aggressive  dogmatist?  If 
this  is  not  possible,  which  role  are  we  to  assign  to 
Buddha? 

The  teaching  of  Buddha,  as  Dr.  Rhys  Davids 
presents  it  to  us,  may  be  divided  into  two  parts, 
— an  ethical  scheme  of  life,  and  a  metaphysical 
theory  of  things.  Dr.  Rhys  Davids  will  scarcely 
contend  that  the  authenticity  of  the  latter  is  as 
strongly  vouched  for  by  external  evidence  as  that 
of  the  former.  That  there  are  passages  in  the 
Buddhist  Scriptures  in  which  Buddha  is  repre- 
sented as  having  authoritatively  denied  the  Ego, 
may  perhaps  be  provisionally  admitted.*  But 
surely,  in  the  light  of  Dr.  Rhys  Davids'  assertion 
that  Buddha  both  abstained  from  and  discounte- 
nanced metaphysical  speculation,  we  are  free  to 
conjecture  that,  as  statements  of  Buddha's  own 
metaphysical  teaching,  these  passages  are  entirely 
.  untrustworthy.  It  is  surely  conceivable  that  what 
is  set  forth  in  them  is,  not  Buddha's  own  words 
or  even  his  own  opinions,  but  the  writers'  private 
interpretation  of  Buddha's  deeper  philosophy, — 
an  interpretation  which  is  based  partly  on  what 
he  said,  partly  on  what  he  left  unsaid  (for  his 
silence  is  both  significant  and  suggestive),  but 
chiefly  on  what  the  writers  themselves  happened 
to  believe.  It  is  conceivable  that  the  writers  felt, 
as  Dr.  Rhys  Davids  evidently  feels  and  as  we 

*But  see  Chapter  VII,  p.  197. 


128       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

must  all  feel,  that  behind  Buddha's  silence  there 
was  a  living  creed;  and  that,  feeling  this,  they 
succumbed  to  a  temptation  which  it  is  always  hard 
to  resist — the  temptation  to  bring  the  ideas  of  a 
great  writer  into  line  with  one's  own — and  as- 
cribed to  Buddha  conclusions  and  arguments 
which  he  had  never  formulated,  but  which,  in 
their  opinion,  he  would  certainly  have  endorsed. 
It  is  conceivable,  to  say  the  least,  that  many  of 
the  stories  and  discourses  in  the  Buddhist  Scrip- 
tures are  as  far  from  setting  forth  the  inner  creed 
of  Buddha  as  the  writings  of  Christian  theo- 
logians in  all  ages  are  from  setting  forth  the 
inner  creed  of  Christ.  At  any  rate,  if  I  am  to 
reconcile  Dr.  Rhys  Davids'  authoritative  state- 
ment that  Buddha  abstained  on  principle  from 
metaphysical  speculation  with  his  equally  authori- 
tative exposition  of  Buddha's  metaphysical  sys- 
tem, I  must  assume  that  he  has  based  the  latter  on 
internal  rather  than  on  external  evidence ;  I  must 
assume,  in  other  words,  that  his  interpretation  of 
Buddha's  philosophy  is,  in  the  main,  the  outcome 
of  his  study  of  Buddha's  scheme  of  life,  is  in  fact 
his  own  private  attempt  "to  complete  and  to  find 
the  centre  of  the  circle"  of  which  Buddha  has 
given  us  only  a  "broken  arc." 

If  this  is  what  Dr.  Rhys  Davids  has  attempted 
to  do,  he  has  set  us  an  example  which  I,  for  one, 
intend  to  follow.  The  specific  passages  to  which 
he  appeals  in  support  of  his  general  thesis  will  be 


A  MISREADING  OF  BUDDHA    129 

considered  in  due  course,  and  an  attempt  will  be 
made  to  show  that  for  the  most  part  they  admit 
of  an  Interpretation  which  is  the  exact  opposite  of 
that  which  Dr.  Rhys  Davids  has  put  upon  them. 
But  as,  on  his  own  showing,  the  internal  evidence 
is  far  more  weighty  than  the  external  (which  in- 
deed he  has  expressly  debarred  himself  from  re- 
garding as  conclusive) ,  and  as  on  this  point  I  am 
in  full  accord  with  him,  I  w^ill  now  study  the  In- 
ternal evidence  In  the  light  of  his  interpretation 
of  it.  He  tells  me  that  Buddha  broke  away, 
abruptly  and  completely,  from  the  deeper  spirit- 
ual Ideas  of  his  own  age  and  country.  That  he 
should  have  done  this,  that  any  great  Teacher 
should  ever  do  this.  Is  Improbable  in  a  very  high 
degree.  Christ  was  in  open  revolt  against  the 
legalism  of  his  age  and  nation;  but,  far  from  re- 
jecting the  grandly  poetical  conception  of  God 
which  Israel  had  evolved  In  the  days  of  his  spirit- 
ual greatness,  and  to  which  his  sacred  writings 
owe  their  charm  and  Influence,  he  went  back  to 
that  conception,  went  back  to  what  v/as  most 
spiritual  and  most  poetical  in  it,  re-affirmed  this 
against  the  materialism  and  formalism  of  the 
Scribes  and  Pharisees,  and  then  transformed  it 
into  a  deeper  and  more  spiritual  vision  of  God 
than  Israel,  at  his  best,  had  ever  fashioned.  The 
relation  of  Christ  to  Judaism  may  well  have  been 
paralleled  by  the  relation  of  Buddha  to  Brahman- 
ism.     That  there  was  much  in  the  Brahmanism 


I30      THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

of  his  day  which  Buddha  rejected  and  even  de- 
nounced, Is  certain;  but  It  does  not  follow  from 
this  that  he  had  broken  away  from  the  Brah- 
manlc  teaching  at  Its  highest  level.  On  the  con- 
trary, the  fact  that  the  Brahmanism  of  his  day 
had  either  forgotten  that  high  teaching  or  delib- 
erately betrayed  It,  makes  It  probable  that  In  de- 
nouncing the  former  he  was  championing  the 
cause  of  the  latter.  And  the  further  fact  that  his 
own  scheme  of  life,  when  surveyed  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  Brahmanic  philosophy,  seems 
to  be  the  practical  application  and  expression  of 
Its  spiritual  Ideas,  raises  to  a  high  degree  the 
probability  of  his  having  been  In  sympathy  with 
those  ideas,  and  raises  to  a  still  higher  degree  the 
improbability  of  his  having  formally  renounced 
them. 

Thus  at  the  outset  we  are  entitled  to  Insist  that 
the  internal  evidence  which  Dr.  Rhys  Davids 
brings  forward  in  support  of  his  general  position 
shall  be  convincingly  strong.  It  happens,  how- 
ever, that,  as  an  Interpreter  of  the  inner  creed  of 
an  Eastern  thinker,  he,  in  common  with  other 
European  exponents  of  Buddhism,  labours  under 
the  disability  of  looking  at  "great  matters"  from 
standpoints  which  are  exclusively  Western.  For 
example,  that  ultra-Stoical  conception  of  life 
which  makes  it  possible  for  him  to  say  that  "the 
true  Buddhist  saint  does  not  mar  the  purity  of  his 


A  MISREADING  OF  BUDDHA    131 

self-denial  by  lusting*  after  a  positive  happiness, 
which  he,  himself,  shall  enjoy  hereafter,"  and 
which  gives  a  strong  bias  to  the  general  attitude 
which  he  and  others  have  Instinctively  adopted 
towards  Buddhism,  is  wholly  foreign  to  Eastern 
modes  of  thought,  and  Is  In  no  way  countenanced 
by  Buddha's  own  ethical  teaching.  On  this  point 
there  cannot  be  the  shadow  of  a  doubt.  Buddha's 
own  outlook  on  life,  if,  as  all  the  commentators 
admit,  It  is  faithfully  mirrored  in  the  ''Four  Sa- 
cred Truths,"  was  not  ultra-Stoical  but  essentially 
anti-Stoical.  The  two  paramount  ends  which  he 
set  before  his  disciples,  when  he  urged  them  to 
enter  "the  Path,"  were  deliverance  from  suffering 
and  the  ultimate  fruition  of  perfect  bliss.  In 
other  words,  his  philosophy  was  hedonism  of  a 
pure  and  exalted  type.  It  is  true  that  he  con- 
demned the  life  of  pleasure.  But  why?  Not  be- 
cause those  who  led  it  w^ere  trying  to  be  happy, 
but  because  they  were  trying  to  be  happy  in  the 
wrong  way, — because  they  had  mistaken  the 
shadow  of  happiness  for  the  reality,  because  what 
they  sowed  as  pleasure  they  were  doomed  to  reap 
as  pain.  So  far  was  he  from  condemning  man's 
longing  for  happiness,  that  his  whole  scheme  of 
life  may  be  said  to  base  Itself  on  an  appeal  to,  and 
resolve  Itself  into  a  systematic  attempt  to  culti- 
vate, that  instinctive  desire,  by  teaching  men  to 

*"Lusting  after  happiness."  What  a  basely  materialistic 
conception  of  happiness  underlies  this  question-begging 
phrase ! 


132       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

*'fix  their  hearts"   "where  true  joys  are  to  be 
found." 

More  Important  even,  and  more  characteristi- 
cally Western,  than  the  ultra-Stoicism  which 
dominates  Dr.  Rhys  Davids'  own  ethical  philoso- 
phy Is  the  dualism  which  dominates  his  metaphys- 
ical theory  of  things.  This  tendency  affects  his 
interpretation  of  Buddha's  ideas  in  more  ways 
than  one,  but  chiefly  In  this  one  way.  He  Insists 
on  things  being  divided  Into  the  existent  and  the 
non-existent,  which  are  alternatives,  whereas  the 
higher  thought  of  India  seems  to  have  divided 
them  into  the  real  and  the  unreal,  which  are  not 
alternatives  but  polar  opposites.  Thus  Dr.  Rhys 
Davids  would  say  that  the  Ego  exists  or  does  not 
exist,  whereas  the  Indian  thinker  would  concern 
himself  with  the  problem  of  the  reality  of  the 
Ego,  and  would  see  that  what  Is  real  (or  unreal) 
from  one  point  of  view  may  be  unreal  (or  real) 
from  another.  The  difference  between  the  two 
ways  of  looking  at  things  goes  very  deep;  goes 
In  fact  to  the  root  of  most  of  the  problems  that 
perplex  the  student  of  Buddhism.  Existence  and 
non-existence  are  alternatives;  and,  If  we  are  to 
choose  between  alternatives,  we  must  provide  our- 
selves with  a  criterion  by  which  we  may  know  the 
true  alternative  from  the  false.  But  how  shall 
man,  who  Is  presumably  not  omniscient,  provide 
himself  with  a  criterion  which  vv^ill  enable  him  to 
define  the  boundaries  of  the  Universe?    For  it  is 


A  MISREADING  OF  BUDDHA    133 

this,  and  nothing  less,  that  he  attempts  to  do 
when  he  takes  upon  himself  to  divide  things  into 
the  existent  and  the  non-existent.  What  is  the 
criterion  or  test  of  existence?  It  Is  Impossible  to 
answer  this  question  except  by  begging  it.  In 
other  words,  we  must  say  what  we  mean  by  exist- 
ence before  we  can  attempt  to  distinguish  be- 
tween the  existent  and  the  non-existent.  But  in 
the  very  act  of  defining  the  word,  we  provide  our- 
selves, whether  we  Intend  to  do  this  or  not,  with 
a  test  of  the  thing.  For  example.  We  ask  our- 
selves: Does  a  certain  thing  exist  or  not?  Does 
a  centaur  exist  or  not?  Does  a  mermaid  exist  or 
not  ?  It  Is  easy  for  us  to  answer  these  questions, 
so  long  as  we  agree  among  ourselves  that  the  ex- 
istent is  that  which  is  perceptible  by  man's  bodily 
senses.  In  thus  defining  the  word  existent,  we 
provide  ourselves  with  a  test  of  existence;  and 
the  test  is  valid  just  so  long  and  so  far  as  the 
definition  is  true.  But  the  definition  is,  at  best, 
only  hypothetically  and  provisionally  true.  In 
the  ordinary  affairs  of  everyday  life  it  is  suffi- 
ciently true  to  answer  our  practical  purposes. 
This  is  all  that  we  can  say  about  It.  To  take 
for  granted  that  it  is  absolutely  true,  and  that  the 
corresponding  test  of  existence  Is  absolutely  valid. 
Is  to  beg  every  question  which  this  hypothesis 
enables  us  to  ansv\''er :  for,  the  moment  we  accept 
the  definition  as  true  without  qualification  or  re- 
serve, we  commit  ourselves  to  a  vast  metaphysical 


134       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

assumption.  Does  the  Ego  exist  or  does  It  not? 
"No,"  answers  the  ''uninitiated"  thinker,  "It  does 
not  satisfy  my  criterion  of  existence.  It  Is  not 
perceptible  by  my  bodily  senses."  He  falls  to 
see  that  the  question  as  to  the  existence  of  the 
Ego,  which  Is,  ex  hypothesis  Invisible  and  other- 
wise Imperceptible,  Involves  the  further  question 
as  to  the  validity  of  his  materialistic  test  of  exist- 
ence. To  ask  whether  the  Ego  exists  or  not  Is  to 
challenge,  by  Implication,  the  validity  of  that  par- 
ticular test.  Had  the  test  been  regarded  as  abso- 
lutely valid,  the  question  as  to  the  Ego  would 
never  have  been  raised.  Yet  It  Is  only  the  thinker 
who  has  allowed  the  materialistic  conception  of 
existence  to  dominate  his  mind,  and  limit  his 
whole  speculative  outlook;  In  other  words,  who 
has  allowed  the  practical  demands  of  his  ordinary 
everyday  life  to  control  the  philosophical  move- 
ment of  his  thoughts; — It  Is  only  the  thinker  of 
this  crude  and  commonplace  type,  who  can  bring 
himself  to  ask  whether  the  Ego  exists  or  not. 
The  teacher  who  rejects  that  particular  test  of 
existence  knows  that  there  Is  no  (final)  test,  and 
he  therefore  abstains  from  asking  a  question 
which  is  of  necessity  begged  in  the  act  of  being 
asked. 

Not  only  must  there  be  a  recognised  test  of 
existence,  If  the  controversy  as  to  the  existence  of 
the  Ego  is  to  have  any  issue,  but  there  must  also 
be  a  tacit  agreement  among  the  disputants  as  to 


A  MISREADING  OF  BUDDHA    135 

the  meaning  of  the  word  Ego.  In  the  absence  of 
such  agreement,  the  discussion  can  lead  to  noth- 
ing but  loss  of  temper  and  confusion  of  thought. 
And  as  in  the  region  of  metaphysics  such  agree- 
ment is  not  to  be  looked  for,  since,  if  it  existed, 
the  very  raison  d!etre  of  metaphysical  inquiry 
would  be  gone,  one  can  but  conclude  that  to  de- 
bate such  a  question  as  Does  the  Ego  exist? — a 
question  which  takes  one  in  an  instant  to  the  ulti- 
mate limits  of  human  thought — is  not  merely  a 
mischievous  waste  of  mental  energy,  but  also  a 
proof  of  mental  blindness  on  the  part  of  those 
who  allow  themselves  to  indulge  in  so  futile  a  con- 
troversy. Even  such  questions  as  Does  a  centaur 
exist?  or  Does  a  mermaid  exist?  become  unan- 
swerable the  moment  they  become  metaphysical. 
For,  though  neither  a  centaur  nor  a  mermaid 
exists,  in  the  sense  of  being  perceptible  by  man's 
bodily  senses,  each  of  these  fabled  beings  does 
exist  as  a  creation  of  the  human  mind.  Is  exist- 
ence, in  that  sense  of  the  word,  equivalent  to  non- 
existence? Perhaps  It  Is:  but  the  question  goes 
to  the  root  of  human  thought;  and  It  Is  Impos- 
sible to  answer  it  offhand  without  begging  all  the 
deeper  questions  which  it  Involves. 

As  metaphysical  controversy  was  wholly  re- 
pugnant to  Buddha's  type  of  mind,  the  ante- 
cedent Improbability  of  his  having  Indulged  In 
the  most  futile  of  all  metaphysical  controversies 
and  authoritatively  solved  the  meaningless  prob- 


136      THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

lem  In  which  that  controversy  finally  centres,  Is 
overwhelmingly  strong.  Moreover,  there  is,  as  It 
happens,  positive  evidence  that,  when  he  was  In- 
vited to  think  and  teach  In  the  category  of  the 
existent  and  the  non-existent,  he  deliberately  re- 
fused to  do  so.  The  story  of  the  dialogue  be- 
tween Buddha  and  Vacchagotta  will  presently  be 
told,  and  its  meaning  will  be  considered.  Mean- 
while, it  is  enough  for  our  present  purpose  to 
know  that,  when  the  wandering  monk  Vacchagot- 
ta challenged  the  "Exalted  One"  with  the  ques- 
tion "Is  there  the  Ego?"  and  then  with  the  ques- 
tion "Is  there  not  the  Ego?"  he  was  In  each  case 
answered  with  silence. 

The  more  carefully  one  studies  the  teaching  of 
Buddha,  the  stronger  does  one's  conviction  be- 
come that  the  ultimate  category  In  which  he 
thought  was  that  of  the  real  and  the  unreal,  not 
that  of  the  existent  and  the  non-existent.  The 
difference  between  these  two  categories  Is  that, 
whereas  the  existent  and  the  non-existent  are  (as 
has  been  already  pointed  out)  mutually  exclusive 
alternatives,  the  real  and  the  unreal  are  polar  op- 
posltes,  and  as  such  always  coexist — except  of 
course  at  the  Ideal  points  of  infinity  and  zero — 
varying  together  in  inverse  proportion,  or,  in 
other  words,  being  so  related  to  one  another  that 
the  one  falls  as  the  other  rises  and  rises  as  the 
other  falls.  If  we  are  to  choose  between  alter- 
natives, we  must  be  able  to  apply  to  each  of  them 


A  MISREADING  OF  BUDDHA    137 

from  without  (so  to  speak)  a  recognised  cri- 
terion or  test.  When  our  alternatives  are  ulti- 
mate conceptions,  such  as  the  existent  and  the 
non-existent,  it  stands  to  reason  that  to  apply  a 
test  from  without  is  impossible: — 

"For  God  alone  sits  high  enough  above 
To  speculate  so  largely." 

If  we  are  to  choose  between  polar  opposites,  we 
must  be  able  to  measure  them  by  a  standard. 
This  standard  is  always  Internal  to,  and  inherent 
in,  the  movement  of  the  two  opposites  from  pole 
to  counter  pole.  It  follows  that,  even  when  our 
opposites  are  ultimate  conceptions,  such  as  the 
real  and  the  unreal,  a  standard  of  measurement 
is  available,  being  inherent  in  the  very  movement 
of  our  thought.  For  example,  to  ask  whether  the 
inward  and  spiritual  side  of  life  is  existent  or 
non-existent,  is  to  ask  a  meaningless  and  therefore 
an  unanswerable  question.  To  ask  whether  it  is 
real  or  unreal  is  to  ask  a  question  to  which  life 
itself,  both  in  its  universal  and  in  its  individual 
movement,  is  the  abiding,  though  never  formu- 
lated, answer.  That  Buddha  thought  in  the  cate- 
gory of  the  real  and  the  unreal  is  suggested  by 
the  whole  tenor  of  his  teaching.  If  there  is  any 
one  thing  which  his  sayings  make  quite  clear,  it  is 
that  he  regarded  outward  things  and  the  out- 
ward side  of  life  as  unreal.  But  he  was  not  so 
foolish    as    to   think    of    them    as    non-existent. 


138       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

Which  is  the  real  pole  of  existence?  Is  the  ques- 
tion which  he  must  have  asked  himself;  and  his 
scheme  of  life  Is  his  answer  to  that  question. 

Let  us  now  assume,  for  argument's  sake,  that 
the  answer  which  he  gave  to  life's  master  ques- 
tion was  the  opposite  of  that  which  the  general 
tenor  of  his  teaching  would  seem  to  suggest. 
Let  us  go  further.  Let  us  assume,  with  most 
of  the  Western  exponents  of  Buddhism,  that 
Buddha  was  a  negative  dogmatist,  pure  and 
simple, — that  he  regarded  the  Ego  not  merely  as 
unreal  but  as  non-existent.  What  follows  with 
regard  to  his  scheme  of  life?  That  scheme  un- 
doubtedly centres  in  the  doctrine  of  re-Incarna- 
tlon,  the  very  purpose  of  It  being  to  deliver  men 
from  the  ''whirlpool  of  rebirth."  If  there  Is  no 
re-lncarnating  Ego,  what  becomes  of  the  doctrine 
of  re-Incarnatlon  ?  And  If  this,  the  keystone  of 
the  arch  of  Buddhist  thought,  is  withdrawn, 
what  becomes  of  Buddha's  scheme  of  life?  Dr. 
Rhys  Davids,  and  those  who  think  with  him, 
have  tried  to  face  this  difficulty.  In  his  first  ex- 
position of  Buddhism  Dr.  Rhys  Davids  saw 
clearly  that  denial  of  the  Ego  turned  the  doctrine 
of  re-incarnation  Into  nonsense,  and  he  accepted 
the  consequences  of  this  conclusion.  He  so  ex- 
pounded the  Buddhist  belief  In  re-Incarnation  as 
to  make  nonsense  of  It,  and  then  boldly  affirmed 
that  the  belief  was   In   Its  essence  nonsensical. 


A  MISREADING  OF  BUDDHA    139 

Speaking  of  those  who  have  trusted  themselves 
to  the  seemingly  stately  bridge  which  Buddhism 
has  tried  to  build  over  the  river  of  the  mysteries 
and  sorrows  of  life,  he  said,  "they  have  failed  to 
see  that  the  very  keystone  [of  the  bridge],  the 
link  between  one  life  and  another,  is  a  mere  word 
— this  w^onderful  hypothesis,  this  airy  nothing, 
this  imaginary  cause  beyond  the  reach  of  reason 
— the  individualised  and  individualising  force  of 
Karma."  But  in  his  American  lectures  he  de- 
parts from  this  logical  and  intelligible  position, 
and  tries  to  persuade  himself  that  the  doctrine  of 
re-incarnation,  even  if  there  be  no  re-incarnating 
Ego,  is  sense.  "There  is  a  real  identity  between 
a  man  in  his  present  life  and  in  the  future.  But 
the  identity  is  not  in  a  conscious  soul  which  shall 
fly  out  away  from  his  body  after  he  is  dead.  The 
real  identity  is  that  of  cause  and  effect.  A  man 
thinks  he  began  to  be  a  few  years — twenty,  fifty, 
sixty  years  ago.  There  is  some  truth  in  that;  but 
in  a  much  larger,  deeper,  truer  sense  he  has  been 
(in  the  causes  of  which  he  is  the  result)  for 
countless  ages  in  the  past;  and  those  same  causes 
(of  which  he  is  the  temporary  effect)  will  con- 
tinue in  other  like  temporary  forms  through 
countless  ages  yet  to  come.  In  that  sense  alone, 
according  to  Buddhism,  each  of  us  has  after 
death  a  continuing  life/'"^  This  is  an  interesting 
statement    of    Dr.    Rhys    Davids'    own    ideas 

*The  italics  are  mine. 


140      THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

about  human  immortality,  but  as  a  statement  of 
what  Buddha  taught  it  is  utterly  misleading.  It 
is  doubtless  true  that  al)  the  forces  of  Nature, 
operating  through  millions  of  years,  meet  in  me ; 
and  that  what  I  do  will  produce  consequences 
which  will  pass  on,  with  an  ever  widening  lateral 
movement,  into  the  remotest  future.  But  this  Is 
not  what  Buddhism  teaches,  in  the  doctrine  of 
Karma,  or  has  ever  taught.  "The  peculiarity  of 
Buddhism,"  says  Dr.  Rhys  Davids  himself,  "lies 
in  this,  that  the  result  of  what  a  man  Is  or  does 
is  held  not  to  be  dissipated,  as  It  were,  Into  many 
streams,  but  concentrated  together  in  the  forma- 
tion of  one  new  sentient  beingJ^  What  Bud- 
dhism teaches  is  that  I  reap  the  crop  which  was 
sowed  by  some  one  man  who  lived  before  I  did, 
and  that  in  like  manner  some  one  man  in  the  fu- 
ture will  reap  the  crop  which  I  am  sowing  now ; 
and  so  on,  both  backwards  and  forwards.  It 
teaches,  in  other  words,  that  the  current  of  moral 
cause  and  effect  flows  In  the  narrow  channel  of  a 
succession  of  individual  lives  (or  rather  in  a  num- 
ber of  such  channels),  whereas  modern  science, 
to  v/hich  Dr.  Rhys  Davids  seems  to  look  for  in- 
spiration and  guidance,  teaches  that  there  is  al- 
ways a  dual  movement, — from  the  collective  life 
into  the  individual,  and  from  the  Individual  life 
into  the  collective. 

The  difference  between  these  two  conceptions 
of  moral  causation,  and  between  the  two  derlva- 


A  MISREADING  OF  BUDDHA    141 

tlve  conceptions  of  human  Immortality,  Is  as  wide 
as  It  Is  deep.  The  question  which  we  have  to  ask 
ourselves  with  regard  to  the  Buddhist  conception 
Is  a  simple  one :  Is  the  Identity  between  me  and 
the  Inheritor  of  my  Karma,  or  again  between  me 
and  the  man  whose  Karma  I  Inherit,  as  real  as 
the  Identity  between  the  me  of  to-day  and  the  me 
of  20  years  hence  (If  I  shall  be  living  then), 
or  again  between  the  me  of  to-day  and  the  me  of 
my  boyhood?  If  It  Is  not  as  real,  the  doctrine  of 
re-Incarnatlon  Is  pure  nonsense  from  both  points 
of  view, — from  that  of  Eastern  Idealism  and  of 
Western  science.  But  If  It  Is  as  real,  the  doctrine 
is  sound  sense  In  the  eyes  of  Eastern  Idealism; 
and  though  Western  science  cannot  countenance 
It,  It  Is  equally  certain  that  It  cannot  reject  It,  for 
the  matter  Is  one  which  necessarily  eludes  Its 
grasp. 

Now,  strange  as  It  may  seem,  there  is  nothing 
In  the  Buddhist  Scriptures  to  show  that  even 
those  thinkers  who  are  supposed  to  have  declared 
war  against  the  Ego  regarded  the  Identity  be- 
tween man  and  man.  In  a  given  line  of  Karmic 
succession,  as  less  real  than  the  identity  between 
what  a  man  Is  to-day  and  what  he  was  20  years 
ago,  or  will  be  20  years  hence.  The  author  of 
the  Mlllnda  dialogues,  for  example.  Is  supposed 
to  have  argued  against  the  Ego.  I  doubt  if  he 
really  did.  It  Is  quite  possible,  I  think,  that  his 
dialogues  have  a  different  aim  and  admit  of  a 


142       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

different  interpretation.  But  let  us  assume  that, 
in  theory  at  least,  he  denied  the  Ego,  and  that  in 
this  respect  he  falls  into  line  with  the  modern 
votaries  of  metaphysical  atomism.  What  then? 
I  cannot  find  anything  in  any  of  his  dialogues  to 
show  that  his  belief  in  individual  re-incarnation 
was  other  than  real.  I  cannot  find  anything  to 
show  that  he  regarded  the  identity  between  A, 
who  is  living  now,  and  B,  the  future  inheritor  of 
his  Karma,  as  in  any  way  different  from  the  iden- 
tity between  the  A  of  to-day  and  the  A  of  20 
years  ago  or  20  years  hence.*  Thoroughgoing 
denial  of  the  Ego  destroys  the  identity  of  a  man 
from  moment  to  moment  as  effectually  as  from 
life  to  life.t  But — to  quote  Pascal's  words — 
*'la  nature  soutient  la  raison  impuissante  et 
Pempeche  d'extravaguer  jusqu'a  ce  point."  Even 
Dr.  Paul  Carus,  whose  intense  antipathy 
to  the  Ego  makes  him  the  protagonist  of  the 
metaphysical  atomists,  would  probably  admit,  as 
a  working  hypothesis,  that  he  was  the  same  being 

*I  am  understating  my  case.  In  one  of  the  Milinda  dia- 
logues it  is  expressly  stated  that  the  relation  between  "the  name 
and  form  which  is  to  end  at  death"  and  "the  name  and  form 
which  is  born  into  the  next  existence"  is  exactly  parallel 
to  that  between  a  "young  girl"  and  the  same  girl  (as  we 
should  say)  when  "grown-up  and  marriageable."  For  all 
practical  purposes  this  is  equivalent  to  saying  that  the  rela- 
tion is  one  of  identity.  (See  "Buddhism  in  Translation," 
pp.  236,  22,7.) 

tDr.  Rhys  Davids  is  justified  from  his  own  point  of 
A'jpw  in  saying  that  "Man,"  as  Buddha  conceives  of  him, 
"is  never  the  same  for  two  consecutive  moments,  and  there 
is  within  him  no  abiding  principle  whatever." 


A  MISREADING  OF  BUDDHA    143 

as  Dr.  Paul  Carus  of  20  years  ago,  just  as  he 
would  speak  of  self-culture,  self -development, 
self-control,  though  all  the  while  he  regards  the 
sense  of  self  as  entirely  delusive.  And,  in  like 
manner,  the  author  of  the  Milinda  dialogues 
would  have  accepted,  as  a  working  hypothesis, 
the  Identity  of  himself  with  the  next  Inheritor  of 
his  Karma,  even  though  he  regarded  (according 
to  our  provisional  assumption)  the  sense  of  self 
as  entirely  delusive.  But  between  these  two  con- 
cessions, which  seem  to  have  so  much  in  common, 
there  is  a  great  gulf  fixed, — the  very  gulf  which 
separates  Western  from  Eastern  thought.  Dr. 
Paul  Carus,  who  is  steeped  in  the  science  of  the 
West,  would  never  admit,  even  as  a  working 
hypothesis,  that  A,  who  is  living  now,  was  the 
same  being  as  a  certain  B,  who  appeared  on  earth 
100  years  ago  (or  whatever  the  number  of  inter- 
vening years  might  be).  The  Idea  of  one  man 
Inheriting  all  the  Karma  of  another  man  Is  one 
which  he  could  not  possibly  entertain.  The  au- 
thor of  the  Milinda  dialogues  might  well  have 
said,  'T  have  lived  on  earth  many  times  already, 
and  shall  probably  live  many  times  more,  but  of 
course  there  is  no  /  in  the  case  at  all."  But  Dr. 
Paul  Carus  could  not  say  this,  though  he  might 
well  say,  'T  have  lived  on  earth  for  so  many 
years,  and  may  possibly  live  for  so  many  more, 
but  of  course  there  Is  no  /  In  the  case  at  all." 
There  is  nothing,  then,  to  show  that  the  Bud- 


144       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

dhlst  of  the  anti-Ego  school  is  not  as  sure  of  his 
identity  from  life  to  life  as  Dr.  Paul  Carus  is  of 
his  identity  from  year  to  year,  or  from  day  to 
day.  In  each  case  the  sense  of  assurance  sinks 
in  theory  to  zero,  but  in  practice  it  is  strong 
enough  for  all  the  practical  purposes  of  life.  In 
other  words,  the  denial  is  in  each  case  academic 
(or  "notional")  whereas  the  belief  is  practical 
(or  *'real").  But  the  difference  between  the  re- 
spective ranges  of  the  "real"  belief  of  a  Buddhist 
and  the  "real"  belief  of  Dr.  Paul  Carus  is  im- 
mense, and  has  far-reaching  consequences.  With- 
in the  limits  of  his  own  earth  life,  Dr.  Paul  Carus 
combines  academic  denial  with  "real"  belief;  but 
the  moment  those  limits  are  passed,  the  denial 
ceases  to  be  academic  and  becomes  intensely 
"real."  The  Buddhist,  who  is  much  more  logi- 
cal, sees  no  reason  for  drawing  a  hard  and  fast 
line  at  either  birth  or  death.  Backward  and  for- 
ward, as  far  as  the  eye  of  his  thought  can  reach, 
his  denial  of  the  Ego,  however  sweeping  and  un- 
compromising it  may  be,  is  always  "notional" 
whereas  his  belief  in  it  is  always  "real."  We 
shall  presently  learn  that  the  monk  Yamaka,  who 
identified  Nirvana  with  annihilation,  was  per- 
suaded to  abandon  this  "wicked  heresy"  by  a  fel- 
low-monk, who  reminded  him  that  the  argu- 
ments against  the  reality  of  the  Nirvanic  life  of 
the  "Saint"  were  not  a  whit  stronger  than  the  ar- 
guments against  the  reality  of  the  true  life  of  the 


A  MISREADING  OF  BUDDHA    145 

"Saint"  whilst  on  earth.  The  moral  of  this  story 
is  surely  obvious  and  significant. 

I  have  spoken  at  some  length  on  this  point  be- 
cause I  wish  to  make  it  clear  that,  if  denial  of  the 
Ego  is  real,  if  its  meaning  is  fully  pressed  home, 
the  doctrine  of  re-incarnation,  which  is  undoubt- 
edly the  keystone  of  the  whole  arch  of  Buddhist 
thought,  becomes  pure  nonsense.  The  essence  of 
the  doctrine  is  that  B  inherits  the  whole  of  A's 
Karma,  C  the  whole  of  B's,  and  so  on.  Unless 
the  identity  of  A  with  B,  of  B  with  C,  and  so  on, 
is  as  real  as  the  identity,  within  the  limits  of  each 
earth  life,  of  the  child  with  the  youth  and  the 
youth  with  the  man,  the  doctrine  loses  its  mean- 
ing, and  the  arch  of  thought  which  it  holds  to- 
gether becomes  a  ruinous  heap.  We  must  there- 
fore either  assume  that  the  arch  of  Buddhist 
thought  and  doctrine  had  no  keystone,  or  that 
the  Buddhist  denial  of  the  "Ego"  was  "notional" 
rather  than  "real."  Of  these  alternative  assump- 
tions, reason  and  common  sense  alike  demand 
that  we  should  adopt  the  latter. 

Whichever  assumption  we  adopt,  we  are  at  lib- 
erty to  say  that  the  attempts  which  Dr.  Rhys 
Davids,  Dr.  Paul  Carus  and  other  Western  inter- 
preters of  Buddhism  make  to  bring  the  doctrine 
of  re-incarnation  into  line  with  the  scientific  doc- 
trines of  heredity,  of  physical  causation,  and  the 
like,  are  sophistical  and  inconclusive.  I  have 
not  made  an  exhaustive  study  of  the  eschatology 


146       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

of  the  modern  ''religion  of  science'';  but  I  under- 
stand that  it  recognises  three  kinds  of  immortal- 
ity. The  first  is  that  of  living  in  the  lives  of  our 
direct  descendants, — an  immortality  which  one 
can  enjoy,  while  still  on  earth,  down  to  the  second 
or  third  of  the  after  generations  (for  a  man  may 
live  to  see  his  great-grandchildren),  but  which 
bachelors,  old  maids,  and  other  persons  who  die 
without  issue  are  not  allowed  to  share.  The 
second  is  the  immortality  of  fame  (or  notoriety) 
— the  immortality  of  a  Marcus  Aurelius  (or  a 
Caesar  Borgia) — an  immortality  which  few  per- 
sons are  privileged  to  enjoy,  and  which,  with 
very  rare  exceptions,  is  of  brief  duration.  The 
third  is  the  immortality  of  living  in  the  conse- 
quences of  one's  actions,  so  far  as  these  affect 
for  good  or  for  evil  the  lives  of  other  men.  The 
immortality  to  which  Buddha  taught  his  disciples 
to  look  forward  has  nothing  in  common  with  any 
of  these.  The  immortality  of  living  in  the  ever- 
widening  consequences  of  one's  conduct  is  real 
enough,  and  the  contemplation  of  it  may  give 
satisfaction  to  certain  minds.  But  the  immortal- 
ity which  the  law  of  Karma  makes  possible  is 
wholly  different  from  this.  The  Karmic  conse- 
quences of  action  are  in  the  main  inward  and 
spiritual, — the  effect  on  the  doer  of  what  he 
habitually  does.  Hence  it  is  that  the  doctrine 
of  re-incarnation,  when  divorced  from  the  doc- 
trine of  a  re-incarnating  soul  or  Ego,  loses  its 


A  MISREADING  OF  BUDDHA    147 

meaning  and  its  value,   and  becon^.es  as  wildly 
fantastic  as  Western  thought  too  readily  assumes 
it  to  be.    It  stands  to  reason  that,  if  there  is  no 
Ego,  the  inward  consequences  of  a  man's  conduct 
will  end  abruptly  at  his  death.    What  then?  Are 
we  to  suppose  that  the  outward  consequences  of 
his  conduct,  which  have  diffused  themselves  far 
and  wide  during  his  lifetime,  w^ill  after  his  death 
— perhaps  long  after  his  death,  for  the  return  to 
earth  may  be  long  delayed — be  reunited  in  the 
channel  of  a  single  human  life?    The  supposition 
is  not  merely  incredible,  but  absolutely  unthink- 
able.    The  alternative  supposition  that  B,  the 
inheritor  of  A's  Karma,  will  be  rewarded   (or 
punished) — presumably  by  an  omnipotent  magi- 
cian— for  A's  conduct  while  on  earth,  is  worse 
than  unthinkable.    It  does  violence  to  one's  sense 
of  law  on  every  plane  of  thought.    But  when  the 
doctrine  of  Karma  is  supported  and  elucidated  by 
the  conception  of  a  re-incarnating  soul  or  Ego,  it 
at  once  becomes  intelligible,  even  from  the  point 
of  view  of  denial  of  the  Ego.     To  say  that  con- 
duct always  re-acts  upon  character,  and  that  the 
departing  soul  will  therefore  take  away  with  it 
from  earth  the  inward  consequences  of  its  action 
and  bring  these  back  to  earth,  with  all  their  pos- 
sible ulterior  consequences,   at  its  next  incarna- 
tion, is  to  say  what  is  certainly  disputable  and 
perhaps  untrue  but  at  any  rate  has  the  merit  of 
making  coherent  sense. 


148       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

The  Inherent  unreasonableness  of  the  doctrine 
of  Karma,  as  Western  orientalists  choose  to  In- 
terpret It,  will  become  more  apparent  when  we 
consider  It  In  Its  relation  to  the  motives  which 
Buddha  set  before  his  followers.  The  paramount 
motive  was  the  prospect  of  escaping  from  the 
^'whirlpool  of  rebirth"  and  attaining  to  the  bliss 
of  Nirvana.    That  this  goal  should  be  won  with- 
in the  limits  of  a  single  earth-life,  however  vir- 
tuous, was  not — we  may  rest  assured — contem- 
plated by  Buddha,  or  by  any  of  those  thinkers 
who  carried  on  the  tradition  of  his  teaching. 
This  Is  a  general  statement  which  admits  of  iso- 
lated exceptions.     A  man  of  abnormal  spiritual 
development,  like  Buddha  himself — a  man  whom 
a  long  series  of  virtuous  lives  had  brought  to  the 
threshold  of  Nirvana — might  conceivably  cross 
that  threshold  before  he  died,  and  return  to  earth 
no  more.     But  for  the  rank  and  file  of  mankind 
the  goal  of  deliverance  was   a   ^'far-off  divine 
event"  to  which  the  journey  was  In  any  case  long 
and    toilsome,    though    it   might   be    materially 
shortened  if  the  Path  which  Buddha  pointed  out 
to  mankind — the  path  of  sympathy  and  self-con- 
trol— was  resolutely  entered  and  faithfully  fol- 
lowed.   "The  Buddhist,"  says  Dr.  Rhys  Davids, 
"hopes  to  enter,  even  though  he  will  not  reach 
the  end  of,  the  Path  In  this  life;  and  if  he  onc^ 
enters  therein,  he  is  certain  in  some  future  exist- 
ence, perhaps  under  less  material  conditions,  to 


A  MISREADING  OF  BUDDHA    149 

arrive  at  the  goal  of  salvation,  at  the  calm  and 
rest  of  Nirvana."  ^^He  Is  certain."  But  Is  It  he 
who  will  arrive  at  the  goal,  or  someone  else? 
Why  does  the  life  of  sympathy  and  self-control 
tend  to  shorten  the  journey  to  Nirvana?  Ob- 
viously, because  It  makes  for  the  spiritual  devel- 
opment of  the  man  who  leads  It;  because  It 
strengthens  his  character,  deepens  his  Insight,  ex- 
pands his  consciousness,  purifies  his  soul.  But 
what  If  there  Is  to  be  no  Identity  between  A,  who 
Is  now  walking  In  the  Path,  and  B.  the  next  in- 
heritor of  his  Karma?  From  the  point  of  view 
of  the  goal  which  Buddha  set  before  men,  the  in- 
ward consequences  of  A's  conduct — the  reaction 
of  what  he  does  on  what  he  Is — are  of  supreme 
imxportance.  But  if  there  Is  no  self,  no  Ego  to 
return  to  earth,  the  Inward  consequences  will,  as 
I  have  lately  pointed  out,  end  abruptly  at  A's 
death,  and  there  will  be  no  character — developed, 
expanded,  purified — for  A  to  transmit  to  B,  his 
new  self.  We  must  at  any  rate  assume,  if  we  are 
to  see  any  meaning  In  Buddha's  appeal  to  man- 
kind, that  the  identity  between  A  and  B  is  as  real 
as  the  Identity  between  the  A  of  this  year  and  the 
A  of  next  year,  however  real  (or  unreal)  that 
identity  may  be.  And  this,  I  think,  is  what  the 
accredited  exponents  of  Buddhism,  Including 
those  who  may  have  denied  the  Ego  In  theory, 
have  always  taken  for  granted.  There  Is  noth- 
ing to  show  that,  when  Buddhism  expounds  and 


150       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

enforces  the  doctrine  of  natural  retribution,  it  has 
any  doubt  as  to  B  inheriting  the  inward  conse- 
quences of  A's  conduct.  But  the  inward  conse- 
quences of  A's  conduct  are  summed  up  in  his 
character;  and  if  he  transmits  his  character  to  B, 
he  transmits  himself. 

It  is  here  that  Buddhism  parts  company  with 
those  Western  interpreters  of  it  who  try,  like  Dr. 
Paul  Carus,  to  affiliate  it  to  the  (so-called)  "re- 
ligion of  science."  Whatever  theory  Dr.  Paul 
Carus  may  hold  as  to  the  identity*  (or  non-iden- 
tity) of  the  man  of  60  or  70  years  with  the  same 
man  (as  we  must  call  him)  at  the  age  of  20  or 
30,  he  would  admit,  without  hesitation,  that  It 
was  both  reasonable  and  just  that  the  old  man 
should  suffer  because  the  young  man  had  sinned. 
Similarly,  whatever  theory  the  author  of  the 
Milinda  Dialogues  may  have  held  as  to  the 
Identity  (or  non-Identity)  of  B  with  A,  he  would 
have  admitted,  without  hesitation,  that  It  was 
both  reasonable  and  just  that  B  should  suffer 
because  A  had  sinned.  But  Dr.  Paul  Carus 
could  never  bring  himself  to  admit  this :  he  could 

*Dr.  Paul  Carus  professes  to  believe  in  personal  identity. 
What  he  really  believes  in  is  "thumb-mark"  identity.  He 
tells  us  that  "the  continuous  preservation  of  form  is  all 
that  is  and  can  be  meant  by  sameness  of  personality."  But 
if  sameness  of  personality  is  dependent  upon  sameness  of 
form,  it  must  depend,  in  the  last  resort,  on  the  marking  of 
the  human  thumb;  for  though  the  face  and  the  figure  of 
a  man  may  change,  in  the  course  of  time,  beyond  recogni- 
tion, his  "thumb-mark"  will  always  serve  to  identify  him. 


A  MISREADING  OF  BUDDHA    151 

never  in  any  way  recognise  individual  re-incar- 
nation. 

Let  us,  however,  suppose  that  Buddha  and  his 
followers  were  in  full  accord  with  Dr.  Paul 
Carus.  Let  us  suppose  that  their  denial  of  the 
Ego,  as  an  entity  which  survives  death,  was  not 
academic,  but  practical  and  real.  In  that  case 
what  would  become  of  the  paramount  motive 
which  they  set  before  their  fellowmen?  If  it 
were  possible  for  each  man,  in  his  own  lifetime 
on  earth,  to  attain  to  Nirvana,  there  would  be  a 
meaning,  even  for  those  who  denied  the  Ego,  in 
the  promise  of  deliverance,  though  in  that  case 
the  fulfilment  of  the  Buddhist  Law  would  in- 
volve the  early  extinction  of  the  whole  human 
race.  But  as,  apart  from  a  few  isolated  cases, 
the  possibility  of  a  man  attaining  to  Nirvana  in 
his  own  earth-life  has  never  been  contemplated 
by  Buddhism,  the  promise  of  deliverance,  when 
coupled  with  an  authoritative  denial  of  the  Ego, 
must  be  regarded  as  the  hollowxst  of  mockeries. 
What  sense  is  there  in  telling  me  to  live  virtu- 
ously now  in  order  that,  if  my  successors  in  that 
line  of  earth-lives  to  which  I  happen  to  belong 
are  equally  virtuous^  someone  who  would  other- 
wise appear  on  earth  100,000  years  hence  (let  us 
say)  may  not  be  born;  and  in  order  that  someone 
else — his  immediate  predecessor  in  the  given  line 
of  lives — may  enjoy  the  evanescent  bliss  of  Nir- 
vana?    To  tell  A  to  be  virtuous  in  order  that, 


152       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

somewhere  in  the  remote  future,  Y  may  be  su- 
premely happy  for  a  few  years  and  Z  may  not  be 
born,  Is  to  set  him  a  meaningless  task.  It  Is  diffi- 
cult to  say  which  sense  Is  the  more  deeply  out- 
raged by  such  a  doctrine  of  moral  retribution, — 
one's  sense  of  justice  or  (for  the  chain  of  cause 
and  effect  is  obviously  broken  at  each  successive 
death)  one's  sense  of  natural  law. 

I  will  now  set  forth  as  briefly  as  possible  my 
reasons  for  calling  the  current  interpretation  of 
Buddha's  Ideas  a  "misreading  of  Buddha." 

The  antecedent  improbability  of  a  great 
Teacher  breaking  away  completely  from  the 
highest  and  deepest  thought  of  his  nation  and  his 
age,  is  very  great.  The  great  Teacher  Is  always 
a  reformer  as  well  as  an  innovator;  and  to  re- 
form is  to  go  back  to  an  ideal  which  had  been 
forgotten,  or  otherwise  obscured.  The  chances 
are,  then,  that  Buddha,  who  was  unquestionably 
one  of  the  greatest  of  all  moral  teachers,  went 
back  from  what  was  corrupt  and  degenerate  in 
the  thought  and  the  consequent  practice  of  his 
age  to  what  was  pure  and  spiritual.  This  much 
we  may  say  before  we  begin  to  study  his  scheme 
of  life. 

But  when  we  study  that  scheme,  and  find,  as  we 
certainly  do,  that  it  is  the  practical  application  and 
embodiment  of  the  great  ideas  of  Indian  idealism 
— so  much  so,  indeed,  that  we  may  actually  de- 


A  MISREADING  OF  BUDDHA    153 

duce  from  those  Ideas  (given  a  practical  aim  on 
the  part  of  their  votary)  the  leading  features  of 
the  Buddhist  "Law" — we  cannot  but  feel  that 
the  probability  of  the  Founder  of  Buddhism  hav- 
ing been  an  Idealist  (in  the  truest  sense  of  the 
word)  at  heart — at  the  heart  of  his  own  deep 
silence — Is  raised  to  a  very  high  degree. 

And  when,  having  for  argument's  sake  as- 
sumed the  opposite  of  this,  assumed  that  the 
teaching  of  Buddha  was  directly  and  funda- 
mentally subversive  of  the  ideas  which  found  ut- 
terance In  the  Upanlshads,  we  find  that  the  whole 
system  falls  to  pieces  and  the  wisdom  of  It  be- 
comes unthinkable  nonsense,  then  what  has  hith- 
erto been  probability  of  a  very  high  degree  seems 
to  approach  the  level  of  certainty.  At  any  rate,  If 
we  may  not  yet  say  that  the  creed  which  Buddha 
held  but  did  not  openly  profess,  was  the  spiritual 
Idealism  of  ancient  India,  we  may  say  that  the 
counter-hypothesis — that  Buddha's  creed  was  the 
direct  negation  of  that  lofty  faith — can  easily  be 
disproved.  The  efforts  that  are  made  to  bring 
the  teaching  of  Buddha  into  line  with  the  nega- 
tive dogmatism  of  the"religion  of  science"  would 
be  ludicrous  if  they  were  not.  In  a  sense,  pathetic. 
For,  in  truth,  they  prove  nothing  except  the 
depth  of  the  abyss  that  separates  Eastern  from 
Western  thought. 


Chapter  VI 

THE  SILENCE  OF  BUDDHA 

IT  is  the  silence  of  Buddha  which  has  misled 
so  many  of  his  commentators.  The 
teacher  who,  while  pointing  out  to  us 
the  ultimate  issues  of  life,  keeps  silence 
as  to  its  ultimate  realities  and  ulti- 
mate principles,  must  be  prepared  for  his  phi- 
losophy— the  philosophy  that  is  at  the  heart  of 
his  silence — to  be  misunderstood.  It  is  not  mere- 
ly that  he  gives  us  no  clue  to  the  labyrinth  of  his 
deeper  thoughts,  and  so  leaves  each  of  us  free  to 
explore  that  labyrinth  for  himself.  There  is  an- 
other and  a  graver  danger  to  which  he  exposes 
the  faith  of  his  heart.  Of  those  who  take  a 
speculative  interest  in  his  ideas,  few  will  be  con- 
tent to  regard  his  silence  as  purely  agnostic.  The 
majority  will  see  in  it  either  the  negation  or  the 
confirmation  of  their  own  philosophical  preju- 
dices. The  positive  dogmatist,  who  has  made  up 
his  mind  that  the  ultimate  realities  of  existence 
are  such  and  such,  will  regard  it  as  a  challenge 
and  a  defiance,  and  will  apply  to  it  the  epithets 
which  he  reserves  for  denial  of  his  own  creed. 

154 


THE  SILENCE  OF  BUDDHA     155 

The  negative  dogmatist  will  insist  that  it  is  a 
polite  concession  to  the  weakness  of  the  "ortho- 
dox," and  that  behind  it  is  a  conception  of  life  as 
fundamentally  negative  as  his  own.  In  either 
case  the  silence  of  the  Master  will  be  construed 
as  equivalent  to  denial  and  revolt. 

This  is  the  fate  which  has  befallen  Buddha. 
Because  he  said  nothing  about  God  he  is  held — 
by  the  "orthodox"  as  well  as  by  the  "unbeliever" 
— to  have  "denied  the  divine."  Because  he  said 
little  about  the  "Self,"  and  because  that  little  was 
mainly  negative,*  he  is  held  to  have  denied  the 
Ego.  And  he  is  credited  with  all  the  conse- 
quences of  these  tremendous  denials.  He  who  on 
principle  kept  silence  about  what  is  ultimate  Is 
supposed  to  have  elaborated  a  complete  system  of 
negatively  ultimate  thought. 

There  is  nothing  In  the  history  of  human 
thought  more  dramatic  or  more  significant  than 
the  silence  of  Buddha.  Let  us  try  to  fathom  its 
depths.  That  there  Is  a  deep  spiritual  meaning, 
that  there  was  a  deep  spiritual  conviction,  at  the 
heart  of  It  can  scarcely  be  doubted.  It  was  not 
from  Indifference  that  Buddha,  of  all  men,  be- 
came and  remained  to  the  end  an  apparent  ag- 
nostic. And,  apart  from  indifference,  though 
there  may  be  silence  about  "great  matters,"  there 
can  be  no  agnosticism  (In  the  sense  of  metaphysi- 
cal neutrality)    In   the  thinker's   inner  life.     A 

*See  pp.  ^^,  78. 


156       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

state  of  perfect  mental  equilibrium  is  Incom- 
patible with  living  interest  In  the  deeper  prob- 
lems of  existence.  The  silence  of  Buddha  seems 
to  have  been  the  deliberate  fulfilment  of  a  self- 
imposed  vow.  At  any  rate  there  was  a  strong 
purpose  behind  It;  and  that  purpose  must  have 
been  the  outcome,  not  of  philosophical  Indiffer- 
ence, but  of  some  master  theory  of  things. 

The  more  closely  I  study  the  stories  in  which 
Buddha  answers  the  over-curious  with  silence  and 
gives  his  reasons  for  doing  so,  and  the  more  free- 
ly I  surrender  myself  to  the  subtle  Influence  of 
their  atmosphere,  the  stronger  does  my  convic- 
tion become  that  Buddha  kept  silence,  when  meta- 
physical questions  were  discussed,  not  because  he 
had  nothing  to  say  about  great  matters,  but  be- 
cause he  had  far  too  much, — because  he  was  over- 
whelmed by  the  flood  of  his  own  mighty 
thoughts,  and  because  the  channels  of  expression 
which  the  riddle-m.ongers  of  his  day  invited  him 
to  use  were  both  too  narrow  and  too  shallow  to 
give  his  soul  relief.  As  It  Is  on  the  plane  of 
spiritual  emotion,  so  it  Is  on  the  plane  of  spiritual 
thought.  "Silence",  says  one  of  Shakespeare's 
characters^ 

"is  the  perfectest  herald  of  joy: 
I  were  but  little  happy  if  I  could  say  how  much." 

The  babbling  river,  as  another  poet  reminds  us, 
Is  overwhelmed  and  silenced  by  the  flow^  of  the 
tide-wave  from  the  unfathomed  sea.    This  simile 


THE  SILENCE  OF  BUDDHA     157 

has  the  beauty  of  truth.  The  mind  that  Is  visited 
by  world-encompassing  waves  of  thought  (or  of 
emotion)  has  more  to  say  than  words  can  express, 
or  than  other  minds  can  receive.  There  are,  In- 
deed, some  gifted  souls  for  whom  the  channel  of 
poetry  provides  an  overflow  (rather  than  an  out- 
flow) for  their  flooding  thoughts.  For  the  rest 
of  us  (as  Buddha  saw  clearly)  there  is  but  one 
available  outlet, — that  of  action,  conduct,  life; 
and  life  will  have  a  stronger  purpose  and  a  larger 
scope  when  silence  Is  behind  It  than  when  Its  mo- 
tive force  is  a  flux  of  words.  So  eloquent  and  so 
significant  Is  Buddha's  own  silence,  that  It  seems 
at  last,  when  one  becomes  familiar  with  It,  to  give 
a  clearer  Insight  into  the  secrets  of  his  soul  than 
any  formulated  confession  of  words  could  ever 
have  done. 

Let  us  now  hear  the  reasons  which  Buddha 
himself  (or  those  who  spoke  in  his  name)  gave 
for  his  silence.  Let  us  study  the  three  stories 
which  Dr.  Oldenberg  has  selected  as  indicative 
of  his  attitude  towards  the  questions  with  which 
the  thinkers  of  his  day  perplexed  themselves. 
The  first  runs  thus : 

"Then  the  wandering  monk  Vacchagotta  went 
to  where  the  Exalted  One  was  staying.  When  he 
had  come  near  him,  he  saluted  him.  When  sa- 
luting him,  he  had  Interchanged  friendly  words 


158       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

with  him,  he  sat  down  beside  him.  Sitting  be- 
side him  the  wandering  monk  Vacchagotta  spake 
to  the  Exalted  One,  saying :  'How  does  the  mat- 
ter stand,  venerable  Gotama,  Is  there  the  Ego?' 

"When  he  said  this,  the  Exalted  One  was  si- 
lent. 

"  'How  then,  venerable  Gotama,  Is  there  not 
the  Ego?' 

"And  still  the  Exalted  One  maintained  silence. 
Then  the  wandering  monk  Vacchagotta  rose 
from  his  seat  and  went  away. 

"But  the  venerable  Ananda,  when  the  wander- 
ing monk  Vacchagotta  had  gone  to  a  distance, 
soon  said  to  the  Exalted  One: 

"  'Wherefore,  sire,  has  the  Exalted  One  not 
given  an  answer  to  the  questions  put  by  the  wan- 
dering monk  Vacchagotta?' 

"  'If  I,  i\nanda,  when  the  wandering  monk 
Vacchagotta  asked  me:  "Is  there  the  Ego?"  had 
answered:  "The  Ego  is,"  then  that,  Ananda, 
would  have  confirmed  the  doctrine  of  the  Sa- 
manas  and  Brahmanas  who  believe  in  perma- 
nence.  If  I,  Ananda,  when  the  wandering  monk 
Vacchagotta  asked  me:  "Is  there  not  the  Ego?" 
had  answered:  "The  Ego  is  not,"  then  that, 
Ananda,  would  have  confirmed  the  doctrine  of 
the  Samanas  and  Brahmanas,  who  believe  in  an- 
nihilatlon.  If  I,  Ananda,  when  the  wandering 
monk  Vacchagotta  asked  me:  "Is  there  the 
Ego?"  had  answered:  "The  Ego  is,"  would  that 


THE  SILENCE  OF  BUDDHA     159 

have  served  my  end,  Ananda,  by  producing  In 
him  the  knowledge :  all  existences  are  non-Ego  ?' 

"  'That  It  would  not,  sire.' 

"  'But  If  I,  Ananda,  when  the  wandering  monk 
Vacchagotta  asked  me:  "Is  there  not  the  Ego?" 
had  answered:  "The  Ego  Is  not,"  then  that, 
Ananda,  would  only  have  caused  the  wandering 
monk  Vacchagotta  to  be  thrown  from  one  be- 
wilderment Into  another:  "My  Ego,  did  It  not 
exist  before?  but  now  It  exists  no  longer!' 


m  y  M 


In  this  story  Buddha  gives  two  reasons  for  re- 
fusing to  answer  Vacchagotta's  question.  He  Is 
asked  to  answer  Yes  or  No.  Whichever  answer 
he  may  give,  some  school  of  metaphysicians  is 
sure  to  claim  him  as  its  own.  And  whichever 
answer  he  may  give,  he  Is  sure  to  bewilder  Vac- 
chagotta. 

That  Buddha  had  no  patience  with  the  meta- 
physicians Is  made  clear  by  this  and  by  other 
stories.  He  had  many  quarrels  with  them.  He 
objected  to  them  for  playing  with  words,  with 
the  result  that  on  the  one  hand  they  drew  people 
away  from  the  main  business  of  life  and  on  the 
other  hand  profaned  by  the  inadequacy  of  their 
symbols  the  deep  mysteries  which  they  professed 
to  explore.  He  objected  to  the  misconception  of 
knowledge,  of  truth,  of  reality,  which  underlay 
their  shallow  dualism,  and  made  It  possible  for 
them  to  assume  that  all  the  problems  of  existence 


i6o      THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

could  be  brought  to  the  Issue  of  a  simple  Yes  or 
a  simple  No.  Above  all,  he  deplored  the  loss 
of  temper  which  the  very  futility  of  their  wordy 
wrangling  rendered  Inevitable, — the  loss  of  char- 
ity, the  loss  of  serenity,  the  loss  of  self-control, 
the  loss  of  all  the  qualities  which  he  had  called 
upon  men  to  cultivate.  "The  theory  that  the 
world  is  eternal,  the  theory  that  the  world  Is  in- 
finite, the  theory  that  the  soul  and  the  body  are 
Identical'^ — of  each  of  these  and  of  all  kindred 
theories  he  says  the  same  thing — "this  theory  is 
a  jungle,  a  wilderness,  a  puppet  show,  a  writh- 
ing and  a  fetter,  and  is  coupled  with  misery, 
ruin,  despair  and  agony  and  does  not  tend  to 
aversion,  absence  of  passion,  cessation,  quiescence, 
knowledge,  supreme  wisdom  and  Nirvana."* 

But  we  shall  the  better  understand  his  anti- 
pathy to  the  metaphysicians  if  we  consider  the 
second  of  his  reasons  for  remaining  silent, — his 
fear  of  either  misleading  or  bewildering  Vaccha- 
gotta.  Dr.  Oldenberg  thinks  that  in  giving  this 
reason  he  came  very  near  to  saying  that  there  was 
no  Ego,  and  that  it  was  only  regard  for  Vaccha- 
gotta's  susceptibilities  which  kept  him  silent. 
This  criticism  is,  I  think,  based  on  a  misconcep- 
tion of  Buddha's  mental  attitude.  Buddha  saw 
clearly  enough  that  the  answer  to  Vacchagotta's 
question,  as  to  all  similar  questions,  was  "Yes 
and  No," — "Yes"  from  this  point  of  view,  "No" 

*"Buddhism  in  Translation"  (by  H.  S.  Warren). 


THE  SILENCE  OF  BUDDHA     i6i 

from  that.  The  words  that  are  ascribed  to  him 
— words  which  may  well  have  been  his — suggest 
that  some  such  thoughts  as  these  were  passing 
through  his  mind:  "The  Ego  Is  real  beyond  all 
reality,  but  I  cannot  hope  to  make  Vacchagotta 
understand  this.  If  I  tell  him  that  the  Ego  is, 
he  will  assume  that  I  mean  by  the  word  what  he 
does,  and  so  be  led  astray.  If,  foreseeing  this,  I 
tell  him  that  the  body  is  not  the  Ego,  the  sensa- 
tions are  not  the  Ego,  the  consciousness  is  not  the 
Ego,  and  so  forth, — if,  in  my  desire  to  bring 
home  to  him  the  transcendent  reality  of  the  Ego, 
I  refuse  to  allow  him  to  identify  It  with  any  of 
those  things  which  he  has  been  accustomed  to  re- 
gard as  real, — he  will  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
there  is  no  Ego,  that  the  word  is  an  empty  name. 
If,  on  the  other  hand,  I  tell  him  that,  as  he  un- 
derstands the  word,  there  is  no  Ego,  that  the 
sense  of  individuality,  of  separateness,  which 
seems  to  him  to  be  of  the  essence  of  the  sense  of 
self,  is  delusive  (separateness  being  the  very 
negation  of  true  selfhood) ,  he  will  be  equally  be- 
wildered. In  either  case  he  will  feel  that  he  has 
been  living  in  a  dream.  What  can  I  do,  then,  but 
keep  silent?"  Had  Buddha  shared  Dr.  Paul 
Carus'  fundamental  antipathy  to  the  Ego — to 
the  whole  idea  of  selfhood — he  would,  I  think, 
without  hesitation  have  answered  the  monk's 
question  with  an  uncompromising  No;  for  meta- 
physical atomism,  like  every  other  development 


1 62       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

of  materialism,  is  very  easy  to  explain,  the 
strength  of  materialism  lying  in  this,  that  it  is 
the  precise  system  of  thought  which  the  average 
man,  who  had  forgotten  his  mother's  teaching 
and  silenced  the  questionings  of  his  heart,  would 
— if  he  took  to  thinking — construct  for  himself. 
Had  Buddha  believed  in  the  Ego,  as  the  pious 
Christian  believes  in  it,  as  a  something  (to  use 
Dr.  Rhys  Davids'  words)  "which  flies  out  away 
from  the  body"  and  retains  its  individuality  for 
all  time,  he  would  have  answered  the  monk's 
question  with  an  unqualified  "Yes" ;  for  he  would 
have  known  that  the  monk's  conception  of  the 
Ego  coincided  with,  or  at  any  rate  approximated 
to,  his  own.  That  he  said  neither  "Yes"  nor 
"No"  suggests  that  he  neither  believed  in  the 
Ego,  as  the  pious  Christian  believes  in  it,  nor  dis- 
believed in  it,  as  the  votary  of  the  "religion  of 
science"  disbelieves  in  it;  and  leaves  us  free  to 
conjecture  that  his  conception  of  the  Ego,  what- 
ever form  it  may  have  taken,  transcended  the 
range  of  ordinary  thought  and  would  not  suffer 
itself  to  be  translated  into  intelligible  speech. 

The  second  story  has  been  thus  epitomised  for 
us  by  Dr.  Oldenberg: 

"The  venerable  Malukya  comes  to  the  Master, 
and  expresses  his  astonishment  that  the  Master's 
discourse  leaves  a  series  of  the  very  most  impor- 
tant and  deepest  questions  unanswered.     Is  the 


THE  SILENCE  OF  BUDDHA     163 

world  eternal  or  is  it  limited  by  bounds  of  time? 
Does  the  Perfect  Buddha  live  on  beyond  death? 
Does  the  Perfect  One  not  live  on  beyond  death? 
It  pleases  me  not,  says  the  monk,  that  all  this 
shall  remain  unanswered  and  I  do  not  think  it 
right;  therefore  I  am  come  to  the  Master  to  in- 
terrogate him  about  these  doubts.  May  it  please 
Buddha  to  answer  them  if  he  can.  'But  when 
anyone  does  not  understand  a  matter  and  does 
not  know  it,  then  a  straightforward  man  says :  I 
do  not  understand  that,  I  do  not  know  that.' 

"We  see:  the  question  of  the  Nirvana  is 
brought  before  Buddha  by  that  monk  as  directly 
and  definitely  as  could  ever  be  possible.  And 
what  answers  Buddha?  He  says  in  his  Socratic 
fashion,  not  without  a  touch  of  irony,  'What 
have  I  said  to  thee  before  now,  Malukyaputta? 
Have  I  said.  Come,  Malukyaputta,  and  be  my 
disciple;  I  shall  teach  thee  whether  the  world  is 
everlasting  or  not  everlasting,  whether  the  world 
is  finite  or  infinite,  whether  the  vital  faculty  is 
identical  with  the  body  or  separate  from  it, 
whether  the  Perfect  One  lives  on  after  death  or 
does  not  live  on,  or  whether  the  Perfect  One  lives 
on  and  at  the  same  time  does  not  live  on  after 
death,  or  whether  he  neither  lives  on  nor  does 
not  live  on?' 

'That  thou  hast  not  said.  Sire.' 

'Or  hast  thou,'  Buddha  goes  on,  'said  to  me: 
I  shall  be  thy  disciple,  declare  unto  me,  whether 


1 64       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

the  world  Is  everlasting  or  not  everlasting,  and 
so  on  ?' 

"This  also  must  Malukya  answer  In  the  nega- 
tive. 

"  Tf  a  man,'  Buddha  proceeds,  Svere  struck  by 
a  poisoned  arrow,  and  his  friends  and  relatives 
called  In  a  skilful  physician,  what  If  the  wounded 
man  said:  "I  shall  not  allow  my  wound  to  be 
treated  until  I  know  who  the  man  is  by  whom  I 
have  been  wounded,  whether  he  Is  a  noble,  a 
Brahman,  a  Valgya,  a  ^udra" — or  If  he  said:  "I 
shall  not  allow  my  wound  to  be  treated  until  I 
know  what  they  call  the  man  who  has  wounded 
me,  and  of  what  family  he  Is,  whether  he  Is  tall 
or  small  or  of  middle  stature,  and  how  his 
weapon  was  made  with  which  he  has  struck  me." 
What  would  the  end  of  the  case  be  ?  The  man 
would  die  of  his  wound.' 

"Why  has  Buddha  not  taught  his  disciples, 
whether  the  world  is  finite  or  infinite,  whether 
the  saint  lives  on  beyond  death  or  not?  Because 
the  knowledge  of  these  things  does  not  conduce 
to  progress  In  holiness,  because  It  does  not  con- 
tribute to  peace  and  enlightenment.  What  con- 
tributes to  peace  and  enlightenment,  Buddha  has 
taught  his  own:  the  truth  of  suffering,  the  truth 
of  the  origin  of  suffering,  the  truth  of  the  path 
to  the  cessation  of  suffering.  'Therefore,  Malu- 
kyaputta,  whatsoever  has  not  been  revealed  by 


THE  SILENCE  OF  BUDDHA     165 

me,  let  that  remain  unrevealed,  and  what  has 
been  revealed,  let  It  be  revealed.'  " 

In  this  story  Buddha  claims  to  have  taught  his 
disciples  all  that  they  need  to  know  and  can  be 
made  to  understand.  More  than  this  he  cannot 
and  will  not  teach  them.  He  may  know  more 
about  the  deeper  realities  of  existence  than  he 
chooses  to  reveal.  Malukya  suggests  that  he 
should  make  open  confession  of  his  ignorance, 
but  he  makes  no  response  to  this.  His  reason  for 
keeping  silent  is  that,  if  men  are  to  wait  till  Ma- 
lukya's  questions  have  been  adequately  answered, 
they  will  have  to  wait  for  ever,  and  meanwhile 
the  main  concerns  of  life — the  pursuit  of  peace 
and  enlightenment,  the  practice  of  self-control, 
the  cultivation  of  sympathy — will  be  forgotten 
and  neglected.  The  average  man  may  either  ask 
the  "Doctors"  to  answer  those  great  questions 
for  him,  or  he  may  try  to  answer  them  for  him- 
self. The  result  will  be  the  same  in  either  case. 
The  questions  will  never  be  answered;  the 
Path  will  never  be  entered;  and,  what  Is  worse, 
the  evil  passions  which  are  generated  by  verbal 
controversy  will  poison  the  springs  of  spiritual 
life. 

When  we  read  this  dialogue  we  seem  to  have 
travelled  far  from  the  Indian  idea  that  know- 
ledge of  reality  is  the  first  condition  of  "salva- 
tion." But,  in  truth,  we  have  never  really  quitted 


1 66       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

it.  The  metaphysical  path  to  knowledge  was 
one  which  Buddha  looked  upon  with  distrust  and 
aversion;  but  knowledge  itself — the  knowledge 
which  has  its  counterpart  in  inward  enlighten- 
ment, the  knowledge  of  reality  which  makes  for 
peace  and  deliverance — was  the  very  goal  to 
which  the  Path  was  intended  to  lead.  The 
truth  of  things,  as  Buddha  conceived  of  it,  could 
not  be  set  forth  in  a  series  of  formulae,  for  (to 
go  no  further)  the  laws  of  language  would  make 
that  impossible;  but  it  could  be  lived  up  to  and 
lived  in  to :  and  so  he  bade  men  control  their  pas- 
sions and  desires,  and  cultivate  kindness  and  good- 
will, that  the  consequent  growth  of  their  souls 
might  be  rewarded  by  the  expansion  of  their  con- 
sciousness and  the  deepening  of  their  insight,  till 
it  became  possible  for  them  to  know  (in  the 
truest  sense  of  the  word)  the  fleeting  from  the 
abiding,  the  phantasmal  from  the  real.  The 
propositions  which  Malukya  challenged  Buddha 
to  answer  had  but  little  meaning  for  him.  This 
we  may  take  for  granted.  But  he  might  conceiv- 
ably have  waved  them  aside,  and  tried  to  disclose 
to  his  disciples  the  inner  faith  of  his  own  heart. 
That  he  made  no  attempt  to  do  so  does  not  prove 
that  there  was  no  master  theory  of  things  be- 
hind his  formal  teaching.  When  we  read  the 
words  "whatsoever  has  not  been  revealed  by  me 
let  that  remain  unrevealed,"  we  cannot  but  feel 
that  what  "remained  unrevealed"  was  soniethin;! 


THE  SILENCE  OF  BUDDHA     167 

well  worth  revealing.  What  the  silence  of 
Buddha  does  prove,  or  at  least  suggest,  is  that  the 
creed  of  his  heart  was  too  deep  for  words, — that 
the  realities  which  it  sought  to  encompass  and 
co-ordinate  far  transcended  the  normal  range  of 
human  thought. 

What  the  first  story  left  us  free  to  conjecture, 
the  second  has  suggested  to  us  as  a  plausible  hy- 
pothesis,— namely,  that  Buddha's  silence  was  the 
outcome,  not  of  the  hollowness  of  his  creed,  but 
of  the  very  abundance  of  his  spiritual  faith.  The 
third  story  falls  into  line  with  the  first  and 
second,  but  brings  us  nearer  to  the  same  conclu- 
sion. 

**King  PasenadI  of  Kosala,  we  are  told,  on  one 
occasion  on  a  journey  between  his  two  chief 
towns,  Saketa  and  Savatthi,  fell  in  with  the  nun 
Khema,  a  female  disciple  of  Buddha,  renowned 
for  her  wisdom.  The  King  paid  his  respects  to 
her,  and  inquired  of  her  concerning  the  sacred 
doctrine. 

*'  'Venerable  lady,'  asked  the  King,  'does  the 
Perfect  One  exist  after  death?' 

"  'The  Exalted  One,  O  great  King,  has  not 
declared:  the  Perfect  One  exists  after  death.' 

"  'Then  does  the  Perfect  One  not  exist  after 
death,  venerable  lady?' 

"  'This  also,  O  great  King,  the  Exalted  One 


i68       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

has  not  declared :  the  Perfect  One  does  not  exist 
after  death.' 

**  'Thus,  venerable  lady,  the  Perfect  One  does 
exist  after  death,  and  at  the  same  time  does  not 
exist  after  death? — thus,  venerable  lady,  the  Per- 
fect One  neither  exists  after  death,  nor  does  he 
not  exist?' 

"  The  answer  is  still  the  same  :  the  Exalted 
One  has  not  revealed  it.     .     .     . 

"The  King  is  astonished.  'What  is  the  rea- 
son, venerable  lady,  what  is  the  ground,  on 
which  the  Exalted  One  has  not  revealed  this?' 

"  'Permit  me,'  answers  the  nun,  'now  to  ask 
thee  a  question,  O  great  King,  and  do  thou  an- 
swer me  as  the  case  seems  to  thee  to  stand.  How 
thinkest  thou,  O  great  King,  hast  thou  an  ac- 
countant, or  a  mint-master,  or  a  treasurer,  who 
could  count  the  sands  of  the  Ganges,  who  could 
say:  there  are  there  so  many  grains  of  sand,  or  so 
many  hundreds,  or  thousands,  or  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  grains  of  sand?' 

'No,  venerable  lady,  I  have  not.' 
'Or  hast  thou  an  accountant,  a  mint-master, 
or  a  treasurer,  who  could  measure  the  water  in 
the  great  ocean,  who  could  say:  there  are  therein 
so  many  measures  of  water,  or  so  many  hundreds, 
or  thousands,  or  hundreds  of  thousands  of  meas- 
ures of  w^ater?' 

"  'No,  venerable  lady,  I  have  not.' 

"  'And  why  not?    The  great  ocean  is  deep, 


"  '] 


THE  SILENCE  OF  BUDDHA     169 

Immeasurable,  unfathomable.  So  also,  O  great 
King,  If  the  existence  of  the  Perfect  One  be 
measured  by  the  predicates  of  corporeal  form: 
these  predicates  of  the  corporeal  form  are  abol- 
ished In  the  Perfect  One,  their  root  Is  severed, 
they  are  hewn  away  like  a  palm  tree  and  laid 
aside,  so  that  they  cannot  germinate  again  In 
the  future.  Released,  O  great  King,  Is  the  Per- 
fect One  from  this,  that  his  being  should  be 
gauged  by  the  measure  of  the  corporeal  world :  he 
Is  deep.  Immeasurable,  unfathomable  as  the  great 
ocean.  "The  Perfect  One  exists  after  death," 
this  Is  not  apposite;  "the  Perfect  One  does  not 
exist  after  death,"  this  also  is  not  apposite;  "the 
Perfect  One  at  once  exists  and  does  not  exist  after 
death,"  this  also  Is  not  apposite;  "the  Perfect 
One  neither  does  nor  does  not  exist  after  death," 
this  also  Is  not  apposite.' 

"But  Pasenadi,  the  King  of  Kosala,  received 
the  nun  Khema's  discourse  with  satisfaction  and 
approbation,  rose  from  his  seat,  bowed  reverently 
before  Khema,  the  nun,  turned  and  went  away." 

Supreme  reality — the  Ideal  object  of  all  high 
thinking,  of  all  knowledge,  of  all  wisdom — Is 
here  symbolised  by  the  Perfect  One's  existence. 
And  that  existence,  we  are  told,  is  "deep,  unfath- 
omable, Immeasurable  as  the  great  ocean." 
"When  such  a  reason,"  says  Dr.  Oldenberg,  "Is 
assigned  for  the  waiving  of  the  question  as  to 


I70      THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

whether  the  Perfect  One  lives  for  ever,  Is  not  this 
very  giving  of  a  reason  itself  an  answer?  And 
is  not  this  answer  a  Yes?  No  being  in  the  or- 
dinary sense,  but  still  assuredly  not  a  non-being : 
a  sublime  positive,  of  which  thought  has  no  idea, 
for  which  language  has  no  expression,  which 
beams  out  to  meet  the  cravings  of  the  thirsty  for 
immortality  in  that  same  splendour  of  which  the 
apostle  says :  'Eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard, 
neither  have  entered  into  the  heart  of  man,  the 
things  which  God  hath  prepared  for  them  that 
love  Him.'  " 

The  nun  Khema  had  caught  the  spirit  of  her 
Master's  teaching.  The  explanation  that  she 
gave  of  his  teaching  harmonises  so  well  with 
those  which  he  himself  is  reported  to  have  given, 
when  challenged  with  probing  questions  by  Vac- 
chagotta  and  Malukya,  that  we  must  needs  re- 
gard it  as  at  least  provisionally  true.  Buddha 
kept  silent  because  his  heart  was  overfull,  because 
he  had  too  much  to  say. 

What  other  explanations  of  his  silence  can  be 
given  ? 

Three,  and  three  only,  suggest  themselves  to 
my  mind. 

The  first  is  that  he  was  a  pure  and  consistent 
agnostic,  an  indifferentist  not  only  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  wrangling  dogmatists,  but  also  in  the 
depths  of  his  own  soul.  Had  he  been  this,  had  he 


THE  SILENCE  OF  BUDDHA     171 

been  what  no  man  Is  who  feels  and  thinks  deeply, 
he  would  have  told  his  disciples  that  he  regarded 
all  the  statements  and  all  the  solutions  of  the  ulti- 
mate problems  with  equal  Indifference,  and  In 
telling  them  this  he  would  have  explained  and 
justified  his  silence. 

The  second  Is  that  his  own  attitude  towards 
great  matters  was  one  of  helpless  bewilderment. 
Had  It  been  this,  had  the  light  of  his  clear  and 
authoritative  teaching  been  the  reflection  of  an 
Impenetrable  fog  of  doubt,  he  would  have  openly 
said  so,  for  such  a  confession  would  have  added 
force  and  weight  to  his  contention  that  men  must 
win  deliverance,  not  by  trying  to  guess  metaphys- 
ical riddles,  but  by  walking  In  the  Path. 

Thus  the  bare  fact  of  Buddha's  silence  makes 
the  first  and  the  second  explanations  of  it  unten- 
able. 

The  third  Is  that  he  was  a  negative  dogmatist, 
who  refrained,  for  fear  of  scandalising  his  dis- 
ciples and  paralysing  their  spiritual  energies, 
from  openly  formulating  his  sweeping  negations. 
This  Is  the  hypothesis  which  Dr.  Rhys  Davids, 
Dr.  Paul  Carus,  and  others  are  disposed  to  ac- 
cept. I  have  already  given  my  reasons  for  re- 
jecting the  first  part  of  it.  I  will  now  consider 
the  second.  Had  Buddha  been  a  negative  dog- 
matist, would  he  have  refrained  from  formula- 
ting his  nihilistic  creed?  I  think  not.  So  sincere 
was  he  and  so  deeply  in  earnest,  that  he  would 


172       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

have  kept  nothing  back  from  his  disciples — this 
we  may  assume  at  the  outset — which  it  would 
have  been  possible  for  him  to  communicate  to 
them.  Now  it  happens  that  a  creed  whose  for- 
mulae are  all  negations  Is,  of  all  creeds,  the  easiest 
to  expound;  and  the  fact  that  Buddha  made  no 
attempt  to  expound  his  creed  is  therefore  a  con- 
vincing proof  that  the  faith  of  his  heart  was  not 
the  "religion  of  science."  When  he  expounded  his 
scheme  of  life,  he  gave  such  reasons  as  he  could 
for  inviting  men  to  adopt  It.  That  he  kept  other 
reasons  In  reserve  can  scarcely  be  doubted.  Had 
these  occult  reasons  admitted  of  being  stated,  he 
would  surely  have  stated  them.  That  he  would 
have  played  the  opportunist  In  a  matter  of  more 
than  life  and  death,  that  he  would  have  kept  si- 
lence about  the  master  problems  of  human 
thought  when  it  was  possible  and  even  easy  for 
him  to  set  forth  his  solution  of  them,  Is  to  my 
mind  incredible. 

The  question  which  confronts  us  admits  of 
being  discussed  on  other  than  a  priori  grounds. 
There  are  stories  which  bear  on  it.  Just  before 
he  died  Buddha  Is  reported  to  have  said,  "I  have 
preached  the  truth  without  making  any  distinc- 
tion between  exoteric  and  esoteric  doctrine;  for 
In  respect  of  the  truth,  Ananda,  the  Tathagata 
has  no  such  thing  as  the  closed  fist  of  a  teacher 
who  keeps  some  things  back."  The  inference 
which  Dr.  Rhys  Davids  draws  from  these  words 


THE  SILENCE  OF  BUDDHA     173 

— that  there  Is  nothing  esoteric  in  Buddhism — is 
not  warranted  by  the  premises,  and  Is  Inconsis- 
tent with  Dr.  Rhys  Davids'  own  contention  that, 
in  his  reply  to  the  two  young  Brahmins  who 
asked  him  to  show  them  the  way  to  union  with 
God,  Buddha  "adopted  the  opportunist  position" 
and  gave  his  sanction  to  beliefs  which  in  his  heart 
of  hearts  he  disowned.     There  Is  always.  In  the 
nature  of  things,  something  esoteric  In  the  faith 
of  a  man  who  has  thought  deeply  and  sincerely. 
There  are  many  thoughts  which  he  cannot  com- 
municate— the  Intervening  barriers  are  Insuper- 
able— to  the  rank  and  file  of  mankind.     There 
are  some  thoughts  which  he  cannot  communicate 
even  to  those  who  are  In  close  sympathy  with  his 
general  attitude  towards  the  deepest  of  all  prob- 
lems.   There  are  a  few  thoughts  which  he  is  com- 
pelled to  keep  back  even  from  those  whose  Inner 
life  Is  very  near  and  dear  to  his  own.     And,  be- 
hind and  beyond  all  these,  there  are  movements 
of  his  own  Inner  being  which  will  probably  some 
day  shape  themselves  Into  thoughts,  but  which 
meanwhile  remain — unformulated  and  unformu- 
lable — below  the  threshold  of  his  own  conscious 
life.     When  Buddha  told  Ananda  that  he  had 
kept  nothing  back  from   his  disciples,   he  was 
doubtless  contrasting  In  his  mind  his  own  meth- 
ods with  those  of  the  Brahmanic  teachers  of  his 
day, — teachers  who  kept  everything  back  from 
their  disciples,  who  sought  to  regulate  the  lives 


174      THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

of  the  people  down  to  the  minutest  details  of  con- 
duct, yet  gave  no  reason  for  what  they  prescribed, 
and  so  crushed  down  the  spiritual  life  of  India 
under  the  deadly  burden  of  an  apparently  mean- 
ingless ceremonialism.  And  he  doubtless  meant 
that  he  had  told  his  disciples  everything  which 
It  was  possible  for  him  to  disclose  to  them.  More 
than  that  he  did  not  mean :  or  the  stories  of  his 
silence  are  all  untrue. 

But  whatever  his  words  to  Ananda  may  have 
meant,  it  is  certain  that  he  who  spoke  them  was 
not  an  opportunist:  it  is  certain  that,  if  he  had 
been  in  possession  of  a  creed  as  clear,  as  intel- 
ligible, and  as  easy  to  formulate  as  the  (so-called) 
"religion  of  science,''  he  would  have  disclosed  it 
to  all  who  came  to  him  for  guidance.  Dr.  Rhys 
Davids  makes  no  attempt  to  harmonise  the  ultra- 
candour  of  the  man  who  claimed  to  have  kept 
nothing  back  from  his  disciples,  with  the  shifti- 
ness of  the  man  who  kept  back  from  the  two 
young  Brahmins,  while  he  responded  to  their  de- 
mand for  spiritual  guidance,  his  disbelief  In  the 
fundamental  dogma  of  their  creed.  But  the  at- 
tempt deserves  to  be  made.  There  Is  surely  a 
mean  between  the  complacent  opportunism  which 
allows  a  man  to  simulate  complete  sympathy 
with  beliefs  which  he  has  long  outgrown,  and 
the  aggressive  candour  which  makes  him  blurt 
out,  or  try  to  blurt  out,  whatever  is  in  his  mind, 
with  the  result  that  he  misleads  and  deceives  his 


THE  SILENCE  OF  BUDDHA     175 

neighbour  in  the  sacred  name  of  Truth.  "II  y  a 
des  choses,"  says  Joubert,  "que  Thomme  ne  peut 
connaitre  que  vaguement:  les  grands  esprits  se 
contentent  d'en  avoir  des  notions  vagues;  mais 
cela  ne  suffit  point  aux  esprits  vulgaires.  II  faut, 
pour  leur  repos,  qu'ils  se  forgent  ou  qu'on  leur 
offre  des  idees  fixes  et  determinees  sur  les  objets 
meme  ou  toute  precision  est  erreur.  Ces  esprits 
communs  n'ont  point  d'ailes;  ils  ne  peuvent  se 
soutenir  dans  rien  de  ce  qui  n'est  que  de  I'espace; 
il  leur  faut  des  points  d'appui,  des  fables,  des 
mensonges,  des  idoles.  Mentez  leur  done,  et  ne 
les  trompez  pas."  It  is  certainly  better  to  "lie" 
to  men  than  to  "deceive"  them.  But  Buddha  did 
not  lie  to  the  "esprits  vulgaires"  of  his  day.  He 
kept  silence  in  their  presence. 

Having  rejected  as  untenable  three  plausible 
explanations  of  Buddha's  silence,  we  are  left 
face  to  face  with  the  only  theory  which 
takes  account  both  of  the  fact  of  his  silence  and 
of  the  reasons  which  he  gave  for  It, — the  theory 
that  he  had  a  creed  of  his  own,  a  creed  which 
went  to  the  root  of  all  great  matters,  but  which, 
In  some  sort,  hound  him  to  silence.  Such  a  creed 
was,  as  It  happens,  already  In  existence.  The 
deeply  spiritual  philosophy  which  had  inspired 
the  authors  of  the  Upanlshads  was.  In  Its  essence, 
esoteric.  The  conception  of  God — the  Supreme 
Reality — as,  on  the  one  hand,  the  soul  or  Inner 


176       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

life  of  the  Universe,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
true  self  of  each  Individual  man,  is  one  in  the 
presence  of  which  thought  becomes  an  Imperti- 
nence and  speech  a  profanation.  The  feelings 
which  arise  in  the  soul  in  response — if  there  hap- 
pens to  be  any  response — to  an  idea  which  is  at 
once  overpoweringly  vast  and  elusively  subtle,  do 
not  suffer  themselves  to  be  systematised  or  for- 
mulated, but  pass  in  an  Instant,  in  the  first  pulsa- 
tion of  their  mighty  movement,  far  beyond  the 
limits  of  any  tabulated  creed.  This  the  sages  of 
India  instinctively  felt,  and  feeling  this  they  "let 
their  words  be  few."  Even  In  the  Upanlshads, 
which  were  composed,  not  for  the  world  at  large 
but  for  an  Inner  circle  of  sages  and  recluses,  the 
language  used  Is  that  of  paradox  and  negation. 
That  In  which  all  their  thinking  centred — the 
Divine  in  man — was  not  to  them  an  object  of 
scientific  curiosity,  a  being  whose  nature  could  be 
exhaustively  analysed  or  whose  attributes  could 
be  set  forth  in  a  series  of  formulae.  They  habit- 
ually spoke  of  him*  as  "That."  They  shrank 
from  applying  any  name  to  him  which  might  sug- 
gest either  that  he  was  a  member  of  a  class,  or 
that  he  had  a  distinct  individuality  of  his  own. 
If  they  predicated  anything  of  him,  they  at  once 
predicated  Its  opposite.  He  is  swifter  than  the 
mind,  yet  he  moves  not:  he  is  far  and  near:  he  is 

*I  use  the  words  he  and  him  and  his  for  lack  of  a  more 
suitable  pronoun. 


THE  SILENCE  OF  BUDDHA     177 

at  once  Innermost  and  outermost:  and  so  forth. 
The  moment  of  apprehension,  as  thought  strives 
to  grasp  him,  Is  also  the  moment  of  discomfiture 
and  recoil.  Speech,  thought,  sight,  hearing, — 
each  of  these  In  turn  Is  made  possible  by  him,  and 
therefore  each  In  turn  falls  to  reach  him.  He  Is 
beyond  sight,  beyond  speech,  beyond  mind,  be- 
yond the  known,  beyond  the  unknown.  He  Is 
veiled  from  thought  by  the  excess  of  his  own  in- 
ward light.  Dwelling  at  the  heart  of  man,  as 
the  "unbeholden  essence"  of  all  things, — gather- 
ing Into  his  Infinite  Inwardness  all  the  outermost 
boundaries  of  the  Universe, — he  is  at  once  too 
subtle  to  be  grasped  by  any  effort  of  mental 
analysis,  and  too  vast  to  be  encompassed  by  any 
flight  of  Imaginative  thought.  *'He  thinks  of  it, 
for  whom  It  passeth  thought;  who  thinks  of  it 
doth  never  know  it." 

Men  who  had  to  use  such  language  as  this 
within  the  narrow  limits  of  an  esoteric  circle,  had 
no  choice  but  to  become  silent  when  those  limits 
were  passed.  For  "those  who  understand"  the 
language  of  paradox  and  negation  has  a  mean- 
ing; but  paradoxes  bewilder  the  uninitiated,  and 
the  language  of  negation  is  apt  to  be  mistaken 
for  the  language  of  denial  and  revolt.  This, then, 
was  the  tremendous  problem  that  confronted  the 
sages  of  the  Upanlshads.  Possessed  with  a  spirit- 
ual Idea,  so  deeply,  so  Inexhaustibly  true  that,  if 
it  could  but  be  assimilated  by  the  heart  of  man,  it 


lyS       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

would  in  the  fullness  of  time  "redeem  the  world," 
— they  were  debarred,  on  the  one  hand  by  the 
fundamental  laws  of  thought  and  language,  on 
the  other  hand  by  the  very  depth  and  truth  of 
their  cherished  idea,  from  revealing  it — as  an 
idea — to  mankind.  How,  then,  were  they  to  bring 
it  home  to  the  hearts  and  lives  of  their  fellow- 
men?  The  ceremonial  solution  of  the  problem, 
which  they  adopted  as  a  counsel  of  despair, 
proved  to  be  no  solution;  and  the  problem  re- 
mained unsolved  till  Buddha  himself  solved  it — 
whether  consciously  or  unconsciously,  is  the  ques- 
tion that  now  confronts  us — by  transferring  it  to 
the  plane  of  practical  life. 

That  Buddha's  ethical  scheme  was  a  practical 
interpretation,  an  exposition  in  terms  of  human 
conduct  and  human  life,  of  the  paramount  idea 
of  the  Upanishads,  I  have  already  attempted  to 
show.  Was  the  coincidence — at  every  vital  point 
— between  the  scheme  and  the  idea  an  accident, 
or  was  it  deliberately  planned?  That  the  latter 
is  by  many  degrees  the  more  reasonable  hypoth- 
esis, is  too  obvious  to  need  demonstration.  If 
we  hesitate  to  adopt  it,  the  reason  is  that  Buddha, 
though  he  worked  out  the  idea,  as  a  principle  of 
action,  with  consistent  thoroughness  and  consum- 
mate skill,  not  only  made  no  attempt  to  expound 
It,  but  even  turned  back,  on  the  threshold  of  their 
inquiry,  all  who  sought  to  go  behind  the  scheme 
to  the  philosophy  that  it  embodied.    But  this  dif- 


THE  SILENCE  OF  BUDDHA     179 

ficulty  will  vanish  when  we  remind  ourselves  that 
if  Buddha,  who  made  It  his  life's  work  to  preach 
the  gospel  of  deliverance  to  all  men,  had  accepted 
the  paramount  Idea  of  the  Upanlshads  and  made 
it  his  own,  he  would  have  been  bound  by  the  very 
strength  and  depth  of  his  faith  In  it  to  wall  it 
round  with  inviolable  silence. 

Link  by  link,  the  chain  of  proof  has  been 
forged  which  connects  the  Inmost  soul  of  Buddha 
with  the  spiritual  idealism  of  ancient  India.  It 
is  true  that.  In  such  a  matter  as  this,  demonstra- 
tion Is  not  to  be  looked  for;  but  It  Is  also  true  that 
each  new  link  adds  strength  and  elasticity  to  the 
chain  as  a  whole.  Tco  jxhr  aXrfdsi  navra  crvraSei 
ra  vnapxovra.  The  theory  that  Buddha  was  at 
heart  a  spiritual  Idealist  has  received  confirma- 
tion from  many  quarters.  The  last  of  the  argu- 
ments that  support  it — the  last  and  not  the  least 
weighty — Is  that  It,  and  it  alone,  accounts  for  and 
justifies  his  silence. 


Chapter  VII 

THE  SECRET  OF  BUDDHA 

THE  creed  which  I  am  trying  to  inter- 
pret Is  that  of  Buddha  himself. 
With  the  creed  of  the  Buddhist 
world,  with  the  creed  of  this  or  that 
Buddhist  church,  I  have  no  direct 
concern.  Dr.  Paul  Carus  Is  gratified  because 
the  South  Buddhist  Church  has  sent  him  a 
certificate  of  orthodoxy.  Would  It  give  him 
equal  pleasure  to  know  that  his  Interpreta- 
tion of  the  creed  of  Christ  (let  us  say)  had 
been  ofiiclally  endorsed  by  some  Presbyterian 
Synod,  or  even  by  the  Vatican?  I  doubt 
it.  Distance  may  lend  enchantment  to  the  "dog- 
matics" of  a  Buddhist  church;  but  when  one 
looks  nearer  home  one  begins  to  see  things  in 
their  true  proportions.  It  Is  not  In  the  doctrine 
of  any  church  or  sect  that  the  spirit  of  the  Mas- 
ter's teaching  is  to  be  found.  For  good  or  for 
evil,  churches  and  sects  are  under  the  control  of 
the  average  man.  On  the  one  hand,  they  owe 
their  existence  to  the  secret  demands  of  his  better 

nature.    On  the  other  hand,  they  reflect  in  their 

1 80 


THE  SECRET  OF  BUDDHA      i8i 

theology  his  secret  weaknesses, — his  spiritual  In- 
dolence, his  intellectual  timidity,  his  lack  of 
imagination,  the  essential  v^ulgarlty  of  his 
thought.  Hence  it  is  that  the  faith  which  has 
been  officially  formulated  is  as  salt  which  has 
lost  Its  savour.  If  we  are  to  hold  Intercourse 
with  the  soul  of  a  great  teacher,  and  so  renew  in 
our  own  souls  the  springs  of  his  spiritual  life,  we 
must  be  prepared  to  go  far  behind  and  far  be- 
yond the  formularies  of  the  religion  that  calls  it- 
self by  his  name. 

It  follows — to  revert  to  the  case  of  Buddha 
and  Buddhism — that  in  considering  the  meaning 
of  this  or  that  passage  In  the  Buddhist  "Scrip- 
tures," one  must  have  recourse  to  the  general 
impression  of  Buddha — the  man,  the  thinker  and 
the  teacher — which  has  been  generated  by  care- 
ful study  of  all  the  available  sources  of  evidence, 
including  (as  perhaps  the  most  Important  of  all) 
the  spiritual  atmosphere  of  the  age  in  which  he 
lived,  rather  than  to  the  particular  interpretation 
of  the  passage  in  question  which  has  come  to  be 
regarded  as  "orthodox"  by  the  Buddhist  world. 
Even  the  fact  that  there  was  an  apparent  agree- 
ment with  regard  to  the  meaning  of  the  passage 
between  Eastern  "dogmatics"  and  Western  schol- 
arship, would  count  for  little  in  one's  eyes,  in  the 
event  of  the  given  Interpretation  conflicting  with 
one's  general  impression  of  the  spiritof  Buddha's 
teaching:  for,  in  the  first  place,  the  agreement  be- 


i82       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

tween  Eastern  and  Western  thought  would  prob- 
ably prove  to  be  wholly  superficial;  and,  in  the 
second  place,  scholarship,  as  such,  is  debarred  by 
its  own  aims  and  interests  and  by  the  special 
preparation  which  it  presupposes,  from  making 
that  wide  survey  and  that  deep  and  sympathetic 
study  of  all  the  available  evidence,  which  would 
be  needed  if  the  inner  meaning  of  the  passage 
was  to  be  wrested  from  it. 

I  have  convinced  myself  that  faith  in  the  ideal 
identity  of  the  individual  with  the  Universal  Soul 
was  the  hidden  fountain  head  of  Buddha's  prac- 
tical teaching.  I  will  now  test  the  worth  of  this 
conclusion  by  applying  it,  as  a  provisional  hypoth- 
esis, to  the  solution  of  some  of  the  many  prob- 
lems that  perplex  the  student  of  Buddhism.  The 
best  way  to  handle  those  problems  is  to  consider 
the  grave  charges  which  have  been  brought 
against  Buddha  and  Buddhism, — charges  which 
have  been  so  often  reiterated  that  they  are  now 
openly  endorsed  by  the  "man  in  the  street." 

Five  of  these  are  of  capital  importance. 

We  are  told  that  Buddha  denied  the  Soul  or 
Ego;  in  other  words,  that  his  teaching  was 
materialistic. 

We  are  told  that  there  was  no  place  for  God 
In  his  system  of  thought;  in  other  words,  that 
his  teaching  was  atheistic. 

We  are  told  that  he  regarded  all  existence  as 


THE  SECRET  OF  BUDDHA      183 

intrinsically  evil;  in  other  words,  that  his  teach- 
ing was  pessimistic. 

We  are  told  that  he  taught  men  to  think  only 
of  themselves  and  their  personal  welfare;  in 
other  words,  that  his  scheme  of  life  was  egoistic. 

We  are  told  that  after  Nirvana — the  inward 
state  of  him  who  has  lifted  the  last  veil  of  illusion 
— comes  annihilation;  in  other  words  (since  what 
Is  behind  the  last  veil  of  illusion  is  ex  hypothesi 
supremely  real),  that  Buddha  regarded  Nothing 
as  the  Supreme  Reality,  and  that  therefore  his 
teaching  was  nihilistic. 

Can  these  charges  be  substantiated?  If  they 
can,  we  are  confronted  by  the  most  perplexing  of 
all  problems.  How  comes  It  that  a  religion 
which  has  such  vital  defects  has  had  such  a  suc- 
cessful career?  That  Buddha  won  to  his  will  the 
"deepest  heart"  of  the  Far  East  is  undeniable. 
Was  It  by  preaching  the  gospel  of  materialism, 
of  atheism,  of  pessimism,  of  egoism,  of  nihilism, 
that  he  achieved  this  signal  triumph  ?  This  Is  the 
problem  into  which  all  the  other  problems  that 
beset  the  path  of  the  student  of  Buddhism  must 
ultimately  be  resolved. 

Let  us  now  consider, by  the  light  of  the  hypoth- 
esis which  I  am  seeking  to  verify,  each  of  the 
capital  charges  that  have  been  brought  against 
Buddha. 

( I )    The  materialism  of  Buddha, 


i84       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

Let  us  assume  that,  far  from  denying  the  Ego, 
Buddha  believed  in  it,  in  his  heart  of  hearts, — 
believed  in  it  with  the  depth  and  subtlety  of  belief 
which  are  characteristic  of  Indian  idealism, — be- 
lieved In  it  as  the  "unbeholden  essence"  of  all 
things,  as  the  all-generating,  all-sustaining  life 
which  individualises  Itself  in  every  human 
breast,  yet  is  what  it  really  Is  at  the  heart  of  the 
Universe,  and  nowhere  else.  What  would  be 
the  attitude  of  one  who  so  conceived  of  the  Ego 
towards  the  popular  belief — popular,  one  may 
safely  conjecture.  In  Buddha's  day  as  in  ours — 
In  the  intrinsic  reality  of  the  Individualised  Ego, 
or  Individual  soul?  That  the  Ego  is  not  real,  in 
the  fullest  sense  of  the  word,  till  It  has  become 
one  with  the  Universal  Soul,  is  the  postulate  on 
which  all  his  philosophy,  both  as  a  whole  and  un- 
der each  of  Its  aspects,  would  be  hinged.  On 
Its  way  to  the  goal  of  union  with  the  Divine,  the 
individual  soul  must  needs  pass  through  many 
stages  of  unreality.  So  long  as  it  retains  its 
sense  of  Isolation,  Its  mistaken  sense  of  I-ness,  It 
is,  comparatively  speaking,  unreal.  What  Is  real 
in  it  is  Its  potential  universality.  What  is  unreal 
Is  what  it  regards  as  of  Its  very  essence, — its  in- 
dividuality, Its  sense  of  separateness  from  all 
other  things.  Had  Buddha  looked  at  the  prob- 
lem of  selfhood  from  the  standpoint  of  Indian 
Idealism,  he  would  have  seen  that  the  popular 
belief  in  the  intrinsic  value  of  the  Individual  Soul 


THE  SECRET  OF  BUDDHA      185 

is  fundamentally  false,  not  on  the  plane  of  meta- 
physical speculation  only,  but  on  every  plane  of 
human  life;  and  he  would  have  set  himself  to 
combat  it  in  each  of  its  many  forms.  Of  the 
many  forms  that  it  takes  I  need  not  speak  at 
length.  The  materialism  of  him  who  identifies 
his  soul  (his  "self")  with  his  body,  or  who  con- 
ceives of  it  as  the  "totality"  of  his  own  sensations, 
perceptions,  or  other  states  of  consciousness;  the 
semi-materialism  of  him  who  (like  the  pious 
Christian)  regards  the  soul  as  "something  which 
flies  out  away  from  the  body  at  death,"  or  as  one 
of  many  parts  or  organs  of  a  complex  being;  the 
sentimental  clinging  to  individuality;  the  meta- 
physical clinging  to  individuality; — these  may  be 
mentioned  as  typical  forms  of  that  reluctance  to 
regard  the  Universal  Soul  as  the  only  true  self, 
which  is  so  characteristic  of  popular  thought  In 
all  the  stages  of  its  development,  and  against 
which  Buddha,  if  I  have  not  misread  his  philoso- 
phy, must  have  waged  a  relentless  war.  If  I  am 
asked  why  Buddha,  who  eschewed  metaphysical 
controversy,  should  have  thought  it  necessary  to 
combat  a  belief  which  seems  to  be  primarily 
metaphysical,  my  answer  is  that  the  belief  Is 
not  primarily  metaphysical,  that  on  the  con- 
trary it  Is  the  reflection  In  consciousness  of 
a  deep-seated  instinct  which  has  vital  ethical 
consequences — the  Instinct  to  affirm  the  ordi- 
nary  self,    to    accept    it,    minister    to    it,    mag- 


1 86      THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

nify  It,  rest  in  It — in  a  word,  the  egoistic 
Instinct,  the  hidden  root  of  every  form  of 
spiritual  evil,  and  the  first  and  last  of  moral  de- 
fects. As  the  suppression  of  egoism  was  the  very 
end  and  aim  of  Buddha's  scheme  of  life,  and  as 
In  this  matter  the  distinction  between  theory  on 
the  one  hand  and  sentiment,  desire,  and  Impulse 
on  the  other.  Is  hard  to  draw  and  easy  to  efface. 
It  was  but  natural  that  Buddha  should  wage  war 
against  the  egoistic  Instinct  even  when  It  dis- 
guised itself  as  a  semi-philosophical  theory.  But 
he  waged  that  war,  as  he  did  everything  else  that 
he  took  in  hand,  within  the  limits  prescribed  by 
his  own  "sweet  reasonableness"  and  exalted  com- 
mon-sense. Leaving  it  to  the  metaphysical  ex- 
perts to  wrangle  over  the  more  abstract  aspects 
of  the  problem  of  selfhood,  he  contented  him- 
self with  combating  on  quasi-popular  grounds  the 
popular  delusion  that  the  Individual  Ego  is  real, 
permanent,  self-contained. 

Let  us  assume  this  much;  and  we  shall  see  a 
new  meaning  In  each  of  the  many  passages  on 
which  Western  criticism  has  based  its  theory  that 
denial  of  the  Ego  was  the  cardinal  article  of 
Buddha's  creed.  We  shall  see  that,  whenever  he 
seems  to  be  denying  existence  to  the  Ego  as  such, 
what  he  is  really  doing  is  to  deny  reality  to  the 
individual  Ego,  to  the  ordinary  surface  self. 

Let  us  first  consider  a  dialogue  in  which  the 
principal  speaker  Is  the  venerable  Sarlputta,  but 


THE  SECRET  OF  BUDDHA      187 

in  which  the  arguments  advanced  may  well  have 
been  devised  by  Buddha  himself,  coinciding  as 
they  do  with  arguments  which  he  is  reported  to 
have  used  in  one  of  his  early  discourses.  A  monk, 
named  Yamaka,  had  convinced  himself,  as  many 
modern  interpreters  of  Buddhism  have  done,  that 
the  "doctrine  taught  by  the  Blessed  One'* 
amounted  to  this,  "that  on  the  dissolution  of  the 
body  the  monk  who  has  lost  all  depravity  is 
annihilated,  perishes,  and  does  not  exist  after 
death."  His  fellow-monks  urged  him  to  aban- 
don what  they  regarded  as  a  "wicked  heresy," 
but  to  no  purpose.  At  last  they  besought  the 
venerable  Sariputta  to  "draw  near"  to  Yamaka 
and  try  to  convert  him  to  a  truer  view  of  the 
Blessed  One's  teaching. 

"And  the  venerable  Sariputta  consented  by 
his  silence.  Then  the  venerable  Sariputta  in 
the  evening  of  the  day  arose  from  meditation, 
and  drew  near  to  where  the  venerable  Yamaka 
was ;  and  having  drawn  near  he  greeted  the  ven- 
erable Yamaka,  and  having  passed  the  compli- 
ments of  friendship  and  civility,  he  sat  down  re- 
spectfully on  one  side.  And  seated  respectfully 
at  one  side,  the  venerable  Sariputta  spoke  to  the 
venerable  Yamaka  as  follows :  *Is  the  report  true, 
brother  Yamaka,  that  the  following  wicked  heresy 
has  sprung  up  in  your  mind:  Thus  do  I  under- 
stand the  doctrine  taught  by  the  Blessed  One, 


1 88       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

that  on  the  dissolution  of  the  body  the  monk  who 
has  lost  all  depravity  is  annihilated,  perishes,  and 
does  not  exist  after  death?' 

"  'Even  so,  brother,  do  I  understand  the 
doctrine  taught  by  the  Blessed  One,  that  on  the 
dissolution  of  the  body  the  monk  who  has  lost  all 
depravity  is  annihilated,  perishes,  and  does  not 
exist  after  death.' 

"  'What  think  you,  brother  Yamaka?  Is  form 
permanent,  or  transitory?' 

"  'It  is  transitory,  brother.' 

"  'And  that  which  Is  transitory — Is  It  evil,  or 
Is  It  good?' 

"  'It  Is  evil,  brother.' 

"  'And  that  which  is  transitory,  evil,  and  liable 
to  change — is  It  possible  to  say  of  It:  This  Is 
mine — this  am  I — this  is  my  Ego?' 

"  'Nay,  verily,  brother.' 

"  'Is  sensation  .  .  .  perception  .  .  .  the 
predispositions  .  .  .  consciousness,  permanent, 
or  transitory?' 

"  'It  Is  transitory,  brother.' 

"  'And  that  which  Is  transitory — Is  It  evil,  or  Is 
It  good?' 

'It  Is  evil,  brother.' 

'And  that  which  Is  transitory,  evil,  and  liable 
to  change — Is  It  possible  to  say  of  it:  This  is 
mine;  this  am  I;  this  Is  my  Ego?' 
'Nay,  verily,  brother  Yamaka.' 
Accordingly,  brother  Yamaka,  as  respects 


((  ( 


U    ( 


THE  SECRET  OF  BUDDHA      189 

all  form  whatsoever — as  respects  all  sensation 
whatsoever — as  respects  all  perception  whatso- 
ever— as  respects  all  predispositions  whatsoever 
— as  respects  all  consciousness  whatsoever,  past, 
future  or  present,  be  it  subjective  or  existing  out- 
side, gross  or  subtle,  mean  or  exalted,  far  or  near, 
the  correct  view  In  the  light  of  the  highest 
knowledge  Is  as  follows:  This  is  not  mine;  this 
am  I  not;  this  Is  not  my  Ego. 

'*  'Perceiving  this,  brother  Yamaka,  the  learn- 
ed and  noble  disciple  conceives  an  aversion 
for  form,  conceives  an  aversion  for  sensation, 
conceives  an  aversion  for  perception,  conceives  an 
aversion  for  the  predispositions,  conceives  an 
aversion  for  consciousness.  And  in  conceiving 
this  aversion  he  becomes  divested  of  passion,  and 
by  the  absence  of  passion  he  becomes  free,  and 
when  he  Is  free  he  becomes  aware  that  he  is  free; 
and  he  knows  that  rebirth  is  exhausted,  that  he 
has  lived  the  holy  life,  that  he  has  done  what  It 
behooved  him  to  do,  and  that  he  Is  no  more  for 
the  world.  ^ 

"  *What  think  you,  brother  Yamaka?  Do  you 
consider  form  as  the  Saint?' 

'Nay,  verily,  brother.' 

'Do  you  consider  sensation  .  .  .  percep- 
tion .  .  .  the  predispositions  .  .  .  conscious- 
ness as  the  Saint?' 

'Nay,  verily,  brother.' 


U    (1 


t(  (1 


190      THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

"  'What  think  you,  brother  Yamaka?  Do  you 
consider  the  Saint  as  comprised  In  form?' 
"  'Nay,  verily,  brother.' 
"  'Do  you  consider  the  Saint  as  distinct  from 
form?' 

"  'Nay,  verily,  brother.' 

"  'Do  you  consider  the  Saint  as  comprised  In 
sensation?  .   .   .  as  distinct  from  sensation?  .   .   . 
as  comprised  in  perception  ?  ...  as  distinct  from 
perception?  .   .   .  as  comprised  in  the  predisposi- 
tions? .   .   .  as  distinct  from  the  predispositions? 
.  .   .  as  comprised  in  consciousness?  ...  as  dis- 
tinct from  consciousness?' 
Nay,  verily,  brother.' 
What  think  you,  brother  Yamaka?     Are 
form,  sensation,  perception,  the  predispositions 
and  consciousness  united  the  Saint?' 
Nay,  verily,  brother.' 

What  think  you,  brother  Yamaka?  Do  you 
consider  the  Saint  as  a  something  having  no 
form,  sensation,  perception,  predispositions  or 
?' 
Nay,  verily,  brother.' 
Considering  now,  brother  Yamaka,  that  you 
fail  to  make  out  and  establish  the  existence  of 
the  Saint  In  the  present  life,  Is  It  reasonable  for 
you  to  say:  Thus  do  I  understand  the  doctrine 
taught  by  the  Blessed  One,  that  on  the  dissolu- 
tion of  the  body  the  monk  who  has  lost  all  de- 


u  n 


consciousness 
((  ( 

a  it 


THE  SECRET  OF  BUDDHA      191 

pravlty  is  annihilated,  perishes,    and    does    not 
exist  after  death?' 

**  'Brother  Sariputta,  it  was  because  of  my 
Ignorance  that  I  held  this  wicked  heresy;  but  now 
that  I  have  listened  to  the  doctrinal  instruction 
of  the  venerable  Sariputta,  I  have  abandoned 
that  wicked  heresy  and  acquired  the  true  doc- 
trine.' " 

Mr.  H.  C.  Warren,  from  whose  translation  of 
the  dialogue  in  his  learned  work,  ''Buddhism  in 
Translation,"  I  have  made  this  extract,  heads 
each  page  in  the  dialogue  with  the  significant 
words,  "There  is  no  Ego."  That  is  how  he  in- 
terprets the  teaching  of  Sariputta.  But  surely 
what  Sariputta  intended  to  teach  was  the  exact 
opposite  of  this.  The  monk  Yamaka  believed 
that  at  the  death  of  the  "Saint" — at  the  moment 
when  his  cycle  of  earth-lives  had  come  to  an  end 
— he  ceased  to  be.  This  belief,  we  are  expressly 
told,  was  regarded  as  a  "wicked  heresy";  and 
Sariputta  disabused  Yamaka's  mind  of  it  by 
showing  him  that  it  was  as  difficult  for  him  to 
"make  out  and  establish"  the  existence  of  the 
"Saint"  in  the  present  life  as  in  the  life  beyond 
death  (and  beyond  rebirth).  He  reminds  him, 
in  words  which,  according  to  tradition,  had  been 
used  by  Buddha  himself,  that  the  Ego  is  not  to 
be  identified  with  form,  with  sensation,  with  per- 
ception,  with   the   "predispositions,"   with   con- 


192       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

sclousness,  since  each  of  these  Is  transitory  and 
therefore  evil,  and  "of  that  which  Is  transitory, 
evil  and  liable  to  change  It  Is  not  possible  to  say 
'This  Is  mine ;  this  am  I ;  this  Is  my  Ego.'  "  "The 
ignorant  unconverted  man  .  .  .  considers  form 
in  the  light  of  an  Ego,  considers  sensation  .  .  . 
perception  .  .  .  the  predispositions  .  .  .  con- 
sciousness In  the  light  of  an  Ego,"  and  therefore 
clings  to  those  apparent  "selves"  though  they  are 
all  transitory  and  evil.  "The  learned  and  noble 
disciple  does  not  consider  form,  sensation,  etc..  In 
the  light  of  an  Ego,"  and  he  therefore  detaches 
himself  from  each  of  those  delusive  "selves." 
Not  a  word  is  said,  in  any  part  of  the  discourse, 
in  disproof  of  the  existence  of  the  Ego.  The 
point  of  the  argument  is  that  each  of  the  appar- 
ent Egos — the  Ego  of  form,  the  Ego  of  sensa- 
tion, and  the  rest — is  unreal;  and  that  the  man 
who  regards  the  Ego  of  the  "Saint"  as  non-exist- 
ent after  death,  because  It  will  then  be  finally  de- 
tached from  form,  sensation,  etc..  Is  bound  by  the 
logic  of  his  own  delusion  to  regard  the  Ego  of 
the  "Saint"  as  non-existent  while  on  earth,  since, 
if  the  "Saint"  has  Indeed  won  deliverance,  he 
will  have  finally  detached  himself,  eijen  while  on 
earth,  from  each  of  those  phantom  Egos,  and  in 
doing  so  will  have  found  his  true  self. 

From  this  point  it  is  possible  to  advance  to 
two  conclusions.  As  disbelief  In  the  after-death 
existence  of  the  "Saint"  is  a  "wicked  heresy,"  it 


THE  SECRET  OF  BUDDHA      193 

stands  to  reason  that  It  Is  also  a  ''wicked  heresy" 
to  regard  the  "Saint" — the  true  Ego — as  non- 
existent now.  This  is  the  first  conclusion,  which 
the  Western  critic  who  seeks  to  father  upon 
Buddha  his  own  denial  of  the  Ego  will  do  well 
to  bear  in  mind.  The  second  seems  to  have  been 
tacitly  drawn  by  both  Sariputta  and  Yamaka,and 
to  have  carried  conviction  to  the  latter's  mind. 
As  it  is  obviously  absurd  to  say  that  the  "Saint" 
Is  non-existent  now,  it  stands  to  reason  that  it  is 
also  absurd  to  say — as  Yamaka  had  said — that 
the  "Saint"  will  cease  to  be  after  death.  The 
whole  discourse  is  directed  nominally  against 
Yamaka's  "wicked  heresy,"  but  really  against  the 
erroneous  belief  that  the  individual  Ego,  the 
Ego  which  is  associated  with  form,  with  sensa- 
tion, and  the  rest,  is  the  true  Ego, — a  belief 
which  had  generated  In  Yamaka's  mind  the 
"wicked  heresy"  that  "on  the  dissolution  of  the 
body"  the  Saint  "is  annihilated,  perishes,  and 
does  not  exist."  Indeed  it  Is  no  exaggeration  to 
say  that  in  this  discourse  disbelief  in  the  reality  of 
the  Ego — the  true  Ego  which  transcends  the 
limits  of  the  transitory,  and  therefore  passes  be- 
yond the  reach  of  thought  and  language — Is  au- 
thoritatively condemned. 

Dr.  Rhys  Davids  lays  great  stress  on  a  dis- 
course In  which  various  attempts  to  conceive  of 
the  existence  of  the  Ego  after  death  are  con- 
demned as  heresies.     Here,  as  in  the  dialogue 


194       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

which  has  just  been  considered,  the  Ego  is  that 
of  the  man  who  has  won  deliverance  while  still 
living  on  earth,  and  whose  cycle  of  earth-lives  Is 
therefore  coming  to  an  end.  The  prying  attempt 
to  follow  the  liberated  Ego  Into  the  life  beyond 
death,  Into  the  unimaginable  bliss  of  Nirvana,  is 
repelled  as  Impertinent  and  delusive,  and  every 
form  that  It  takes  is  condemned  as  a  "heresy." 
The  discourse  ends  with  these  words:  "Mendi- 
cants [Monks],  that  which  binds  the  Teacher* 
[the  Saint,  the  Perfect  One]  to  existence  is  cut 
off;  but  his  body  still  remains.  While  his  body 
shall  remain  he  will  be  seen  by  gods  and  men, 
but  after  the  dissolution  of  the  body,  neither 
godsf  nor  men  will  see  him."  "Would  it  be 
possible,"  asks  Dr.  Rhys  Davids,  "in  a  more 
complete  and  categorical  manner  to  deny  that 
there  Is  any  soul— anything  of  any  kind,  which 
continues  to  exist,  in  any  manner,  after  death?" 
This  criticism  (so  characteristically  Western)  is 
as  wide  of  the  mark  as  is  Mr.  Warren's  head- 
line comment  on  the  dialogue  between  Sariputta 

*The  Pali  word  "Tathagata"  is  translated  by  Dr.  Olden- 
berg  as  "The  Perfect  One,"  by  Dr.  Rhys  Davids  as  "The 
Teacher,"  and  by  Mr.  H.  C.  Warren  (in  the  dialogue  be- 
tween Yamaka  and  Sariputta)  as  "The  Saint."  The  de- 
rivation of  the  word  is,  I  believe,  doubtful ;  but  its  meaning 
is  clear.  The  Tathagata  is  one  who  has  followed  the  Path 
to  its  goal,  and  has  thus  won  deliverance  from  earth  and 
found  his  true  self. 

tThe  "gods"  of  Indian  belief  are  beings  who  dwell  on  a 
higher  plane  than  man  and  have  reached  a  higher  level  of 
spiritual  development,  but  they  are  not  divine  in  the  deeper 
sense  of  the  word.  The  gods  themselves  envy  the  man  who 
has  attained  to  Nirvana. 


THE  SECRET  OF  BUDDHA      195 

and  Yamaka.  What  the  preacher  Is  trying  to 
enforce  is  what  Sariputta  had  impressed  upon 
Yamaka,  that  the  Ego  of  the  "Saint" — the  true 
Ego,  for  the  "Saint"  is  one  who  has  found  his 
true  self — does  not  exist  after  death  in  any  form 
or  mode  which  is  comprehensible  by  human 
thought.  Far  from  denying  the  existence  of  the 
Ego,  the  preacher  is  insisting  on  its  transcendent 
reahty.  "Neither  gods  nor  men"  will  see  the 
"Saint"  after  death,  not  because  he  will  then  be 
non-existent,  but  because  his  being  will  have  out- 
soared  all  the  categories  of  human  thought. 

In  these  and  other  such  discourses  Buddha 
falls  into  line  with  the  thinkers  of  the  Upanl- 
shads,  who  described  by  a  series  of  negations 
what  they  regarded  as  the  true  Ego, — the  Divine 
in  man.  The  coincidences  between  his  teaching 
and  theirs  are  so  significant  that  the  only  way  to 
account  for  them  is  to  assume  that  his  faith — the 
deepest  faith  of  his  heart — was  In  Its  essence 
Identical  with  theirs.  If  the  account  that  he  gave 
of  the  Ego  was  purely  negative,  if  he  abstained 
from  positive  statements  (even  In  that  paradoxi- 
cal form  which  was  dear  to  the  thinkers  of  the 
Upanlshads) ,  the  reason  was  that  he  wished  men 
to  find  out  for  themselves,  by  following  the  Path 
of  soul-expansion,  what  the  Ego  really  is.  He 
said  to  them.  In  thought  If  not  in  words:  "The 
Ego  is  not  this  thing  or  that;  It  Is  not  any  of  the 
things  with  which  you  are  used  to  identify  It.    If 


196       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

you  wish  to  know  what  it  is,  enter  the  Path  and 
follow  it  to  the  end.  Your  question  will  then  be 
answered,  for  it  will  have  transformed  itself  into 
a  burning  thirst  for  the  ideal  and  the  divine ;  and 
in  the  bliss  of  Nirvana  that  thirst  will  be  eternally 
slaked  and  eternally  renewed." 

Dr.  Rhys  Davids  is  confirmed  in  his  belief  that 
Buddha  denied  the  Ego,  by  the  fact  that  the 
^'heresy  of  individuality"  is  one  of  the  three 
''Fetters"  which  have  to  be  broken  on  the  very 
threshold  of  the  new  life.  But  here,  as  else- 
where, Buddha  is  denying  the  reality,  not  of  the 
Ego  as  such,  but  of  the  individual  Ego ;  in  other 
words,  he  is  condemning  by  implication  the  blind- 
ness of  him  who  regards  the  limitations  which  his 
individuality  imposes  upon  him  as  the  essential 
conditions  of  his  existence.  So,  too,  when  he 
names  among  the  fetters  which  have  to  be  broken 
in  the  later  stages  of  the  Eight-fold  Path,  the  de- 
sire for  life  in  the  worlds  of  form,  and  the  desire 
for  life  in  the  formless  worlds,  he  is  thinking,  not 
of  the  desire  for  life  as  such  but  of  the  desire  for 
separate  life,  for  the  continuance  of  individuality, 
— the  hydra-headed  desire  which  is  ever  tending 
to  counteract  the  centripetal  energy  of  love. 

There  is  one  set  of  discourses  on  which  those 
who  regard  Buddha  as  a  negative  dogmatist  lay 
great  stress, — the  so-called  Milinda  dialogues,  or 
conversations  between  the  Greek  King,  Menan- 
da,    of   Baktria,    and  Nagasena,    the    Buddhist 


THE  SECRET  OF  BUDDHA      197 

teacher.  Nagasena  seems  to  have  been  an  acute 
controversialist  who  loved  argument  for  its  own 
sake  almost  as  much  as  Buddha  disliked  It,  and 
who,  had  he  lived  in  Europe  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
would  probably  have  nailed  theological  or  meta- 
physical theses  to  church-doors.  That  he  had 
caught  the  deeper  spirit  of  the  Master's  teaching 
is,  to  say  the  least,  improbable;  but  that  his  dis- 
courses present  to  us  an  interpretation  of  that 
teaching,  which  had  gained  currency  in  his  day, 
can  scarcely  be  doubted.  I  have  elsewhere  al- 
lowed, for  argument's  sake,  that  he  may  have 
had  an  academic  antipathy  to  the  Ego.  If  he 
had,  his  discourses  do  less  than  justice  to  their 
theme.  The  arguments  by  which  a  merely 
academic  belief  (or  disbelief)  is  sustained  are  in 
the  nature  of  things  ineffective.  The  spiritual  at- 
mosphere of  his  age,  the  words  that  he  finds  him- 
self compelled  to  use,  even  his  own  subconscious 
convictions — are  all  against  the  thinker.  In  the 
well  known  Chariot  dialogue,  Nagasena  is  sup- 
posed to  have  proved  conclusively  that  "there  is 
no  Ego."  I  cannot  see  that  he  has  done  this, 
and  I  am  by  no  means  sure  that  he  has  attempted 
to  do  it.  What  he  has  proved  is  that,  just  as  the 
name  chariot  belongs  to  the  vehicle  as  a  whole 
and  not  to  any  of  its  parts,  so  the  name  Nagasena 
belongs  to  the  living  being  as  a  whole  and  not  to 
any  of  his  organs  or  faculties.  If  the  dialogue  is 
directed  against  anything,  it  is  directed  against 


198       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

the  vulgar  belief  that  the  Soul  Is  a  quasi-material 
something  (like  the  babe  of  vapour  In  mediaeval 
art)  which  can  be  separated  from  the  rest  of  the 
man,  just  as  a  wheel  can  be  separated  from  the 
rest  of  the  chariot;  or  again  that  the  soul  is  one 
among  many  faculties  which  go  to  make  up  the 
whole  man.  The  flame  simile,  which  Is  also  sup- 
posed to  be  directed  against  the  soul-theory  of 
the  Brahmanic  philosophy.  Is  one  which  that 
theory,  far  from  rejecting,  would  accept  as  singu- 
larly apt.  For  just  as  fire  uses  up  fuel,  and  in 
doing  so  manifests  Itself  as  flame  (that  is,  as 
burning  fuel) ,  so  the  Soul,  In  its  journey  through 
the  earth-life,  continually  uses  up  physical  matter, 
and  In  doing  so  manifests  Itself  as  a  living  body 
(that  Is,  as  physical  matter  fused  and  vitalised 
by  the  Soul-fire).  When  the  Soul  retires  from 
the  physical  plane,  the  body,  deprived  of  its  vital- 
ising Influence,  disintegrates  Into  dust,  just  as 
fuel,  when  its  fire  is  extinct,  turns  to  ashes;  but 
the  Soul  Itself  (if  we  may  follow  Its  progress 
through  the  intervening  stages  of  existence)  con- 
tinues to  use  up  matter,  though,  as  the  matter 
used  Is  now  Impalpable,  the  Soul-flame  becomes 
invisible  till  the  time  comes  for  It  to  feed  again 
on  the  fuel  of  physical  nature, — in  other  words, 
to  appear  again  on  earth.  Even  when  Naga- 
sena's  hostility  to  the  Ego  Is  unmistakable,  his 
belief  In  re-incarnation  causes  his  arguments  to 
miscarry.     He  may  flatter  himself  that  he  has 


THE  SECRET  OF  BUDDHA      199 

disproved  the  Identity  between  A  (who  is  living 
now)  and  B  (the  future  inheritor  of  his 
Karma)  ;  but,  as  a  believer  in  re-incarnation,  he 
must  needs  take  pains  to  prove  that  B  will  justly 
be  held  responsible  for  what  A  has  done  or  left 
undone;  and  In  his  attempt  to  make  good  this 
point  he  has  to  admit  (or  rather  insist)  that  the 
relation  between  A  and  B  is  exactly  analogous  to 
that  between  a  "young  girl"  and  the  same  girl 
"when  grown-up  and  marriageable."* 

Dr.  Rhys  Davids  has  truly  said  that  Buddha's 
"whole  training  was  Brahmanism;  and  that  he 
probably  deemed  himself  to  be  the  most  correct 
exponent  of  the  spirit  as  distinct  from  the  letter 
of  the  ancient  faith."    If  this  is  a  true  statement 
of  Buddha's  attitude  towards   Brahmanism,   it 
surely  behoves  the  student  of  Buddhism  to  seek 
initiation  Into  the  deeper  mysteries  of  the  "an- 
cient faith,"  before  he  attempts  to  Interpret  the 
creed  of  one  who,  while  breaking  with  the  letter 
of  that  faith,  "deemed  himself  to  be  the  most  cor- 
rect exponent  of  Its  spirit."     This,  however.  Is 
what  the  Western  critic,  with  his  instinctive  con- 
tempt for  alien  modes  of  thought,  is  extremely 
reluctant  to  do.    What  he  does,  In  nine  cases  out 
of  ten,  is  to  carry  with  him  to  the  study  of  Bud- 
dhism    the    prejudices    and    prepossessions    of 
Western  thought — foremost  among  which  Is  the 
assumption  that  nothing  exists,  in  the  order  of 

*See  footnote  to  p.  142. 


200       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

nature,  except  what  Is  perceptible  by  man's  bodily 
senses — and  to  Insist  that  the  teaching  of  Buddha 
shall  conform  to  these,  and  be  measured  by  their 
standards.  Hence  arise  misconceptions  and  mis- 
understandings which  might  have  been  avoided. 
If  Buddhism  seems  to  our  Western  minds  to 
abound  In  errors  and  anomalies,  the  reason  Is  that 
we  Insist  on  looking  at  It  through  a  distorting 
medium.  One  who  had  steeped  himself  In  the 
spirit  of  the  Brahmanic  philosophy  before  he  be- 
gan his  study  of  Buddhism,  would  see  that  wher- 
ever Buddha  seems  to  be  denying  existence  to  the 
Ego,  what  he  Is  really  doing  Is  to  deny  reality 
to  the  apparent  Ego  or  superficial  Self,  so  that 
he  may  thereby  clear  the  way  for  the  exposition, 
not  In  words  but  in  the  unwritten  language  of 
conduct,  character,  and  life,  of  the  profound  con- 
ception which  Is  the  very  quintessence  of  the  "an- 
cient faith,'* — the  conception  "that  Brahma  and 
the  Self — the  true  Self — are  one." 

(2)   The  Atheism  of  Buddha. 

The  Christian  critics  of  Buddhism  call  Buddha 
an  atheist,  nominally  because  he  said  nothing 
about  God,  really  because  his  conception  of  God 
differs  from  their  own. 

I  have  already  attempted  to  show  that  the  si- 
lence of  Buddha  about  God — the  Supreme  Re- 
ality— was  quite  compatible  with  a  sublimely  spir- 
itual conception  of  God  and  a  deeply  spiritual 


THE  SECRET  OF  BUDDHA      201 

faith  In  him.  I  have  shown  that  such  a  concep- 
tion and  such  a  faith  were  In  the  air  that  Buddha 
breathed,  and  that,  If  he  had  accepted  them  and 
made  them  his  own,  the  very  reverence  which  they 
would  have  generated  would  have  bound  him  to 
silence  In  the  presence  of  his  audience, — the  rank 
and  file  of  mankind.  I  have  shown  that  his  own 
ethical  teaching  was  the  practical  exposition  of 
this  unformulated  theology, — the  revelation  of  It, 
not  as  a  theology  but  as  a  scheme  of  life,  to  those 
who  would  have  been  bewildered  by  It,  and  who 
would  therefore  have  misunderstood  and  misap- 
plied it,  had  any  attempt  been  made  to  expound  it 
to  them  in  words.  I  have  Inferred  from  this  that 
Buddha  did  believe  in  God,  not  as  the  West  be- 
lieves in  him,  but  as  the  Far  East,  at  the  highest 
level  of  its  Imaginative  thinking,  has  ever  be- 
lieved In  him, — as  the  Supreme  Reality  which  is 
at  the  heart  of  the  Universe,  and  which  Is  at  once 
the  life  and  soul  of  Nature  and  the  true  self  of 
Man. 

But  the  fact  remains  that  Buddha,  though  he 
preached  the  gospel  of  deliverance,  said  nothing 
about  God.  To  us,  with  the  Jehovah-virus  In  our 
veins,  to  us  who  for  many  centuries  have  been 
content  to  believe  that  the  Universe  is  under  the 
direct  rule  of  that  national  deity  whose  sayings 
and  doings  are  recorded  in  the  Hebrew  Scrip- 
tures, it  seems  the  helghtof  impiety  to  keep  silence 
about  God.   It  Is  well  for  us  to  remind  ourselves 


202       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

that  In  the  Far  East,  In  the  days  of  India's  spiri- 
tual greatness,  It  was  deemed  the  height  of  Im- 
piety to  talk  freely  about  God.  We  call  the  silence 
of  the  East  atheistic.  The  sages  of  India,  though 
they  would  have  thought  It  discourteous  to  say  so, 
would  have  regarded  our  loquacity  as  profane. 
To  unveil  to  the  mind  of  the  average  man  Ideas 
which  are  In  the  nature  of  things  so  large,  so  deep, 
and  so  subtle  that,  without  mental  power  of  a 
very  high  order.  It  Is  Impossible  to  grasp  their 
Initial — let  alone  their  final — meaning.  Is  to  ex- 
pose the  most  sacred  of  all  truths  to  the  risk  (the 
certainty,  one  might  almost  say)  of  being  misin- 
terpreted and  misused.  From  such  a  risk  the 
sages  of  India  shrank  as  from  blasphemy  against 
the  Divine.  It  may  be  difficult  for  us  to  enter 
Into  this  feeling,  but  It  Is  well  that  we  should 
know  that  It  did  (and  does)  exist. 

The  silence  of  the  Far  East  has  another  aspect, 
and  one  which  Is  equally  repugnant  to  the  "ortho- 
dox" thought  of  the  West.  In  Itself,  In  the  elo- 
quence of  Its  dumbness.  It  Is  an  abiding  protest, 
not  merely  against  the  profane  loquacity  of 
Western  dogmatism,  but  also  against  Its  deadly 
despotism.  To  tell  men  that  they  must,  under 
pain  of  eternal  damnation,  believe  such  and  such 
things  about  God — or  rather  accept  as  divinely 
true  such  and  such  theological  formulas,  whether 
they  see  any  meaning  In  them  or  not — Is  to 
quench  In  their  breasts  that  spark  of  spiritual 


THE  SECRET  OF  BUDDHA      203 

freedom  which  Is  also  the  germ  of  spiritual  life. 
It  is  true  that  the  symbolical  presentation  of  re- 
ligious truth,  which  official  Brahmanism  adopted 
in  preference  to  the  doctrinal,  may  develop,  as  it 
certainly  did  in  India,  into  a  ceremonial  despot- 
ism as  oppressive  as  any  that  the  creeds  of  the 
West  have  ever  exerted.  But  Buddha's  own  si- 
lence was  agnostic,  in  the  deeper  sense  of  the 
word,  to  the  very  core.  We  could  imagine  him 
saying  to  his  disciples :  "I  have  given  you  my  rea- 
sons for  urging  you  to  enter  the  Path.  If  those 
reasons  commend  themselves  to  you,  enter  the 
Path  and  see  to  what  goal  It  will  lead  you.  But 
do  not  ask  me  to  explain  my  own  explanation. 
Do  not  ask  me  for  deeper  reasons  than  those 
which  I  have  given  you.  Do  not  ask  me  to  tell 
you  what  I,  for  one,  believe  about  the  greatest 
of  all  great  matters.  The  words  that  make  sense 
to  me  would  ring  as  nonsense  In  your  ears.  The 
thoughts  that  bring  light  to  me  would  dazzle  you 
to  the  verge  of  blindness.  And  I  should  but 
deepen  your  perplexity  If  I  tried  to  give  you  the 
guidance  that  you  seek.  But  the  Path  Itself  will 
enlighten  you  if  you  will  trust  yourself  to  It;  and 
when  you  have  followed  it  far  enough  you  will  be 
wise  with  a  wisdom  beyond  that  of  the  wisest 
sage."  The  idea  which  underlies  the  whole  of 
Buddha's  teaching — underlying  what  he  said  and 
also  what  he  left  unsaid — the  idea  that  know- 
ledge of  divine  truth  must  be  evolved  from  with- 


204      THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

in,  Instead  of  being  imposed  from  without,  Is  the 
direct  negation  of  that  idea  of  a  supernatural 
revelation,  which  underlies  all  the  creeds  of  the 
West. 

After  all.  It  Is  not  so  much  the  silence  of  Bud- 
dha that  the  West  regards  as  atheistic,  as  the 
creed  which  that  silence  hints  at  and  seems.  In  a 
sense,  to  shadow  forth, — a  creed  which  seals  the 
lips  of  those  who  see  deepest  Into  the  heart  of  Its 
hidden  truth.  The  orthodox  Christian,  who  be- 
lieves that  to  give  assent  to  a  series  of  formulae 
is  to  enter  Into  possession  of  divine  truth,  and 
who  therefore  regards  Intolerance  as  a  virtue  and 
self-assertion  as  a  sacred  duty,  feels  instinctively 
that  a  creed  which  will  not  suffer  Itself  to  be 
formulated,  and  which  therefore  makes  no  at- 
tempt to  Impose  Its  yoke  upon  human  thought,  is 
the  hereditary  enemy  of  his  faith.  His  Instinct 
has  not  misled  him.  Between  the  "Higher  Pan- 
theism" of  India  and  the  Supernaturalism  of  the 
Western  World  there  is,  in  the  region  of  ideas, 
a  truceless  war.  Had  Buddha  tried  to  expound 
the  creed  of  his  heart,  it  would  assuredly  have 
been  branded  as  atheistic  by  those  who  now  apply 
that  epithet  to  his  silence.  "Such  divinity,"  said 
the  late  Canon  LIddon,  "as  Pantheism  can 
ascribe  to  Christ  Is,  in  point  of  fact,  no  divinity 
at  all.  God  Is  Nature,  and  Nature  is  God; 
everything  Indeed  Is  Divine,  but  also  nothing  is 
Divine;  and  Christ  shares  this  phantom  divinity 


THE  SECRET  OF  BUDDHA      205 

with  the  universe, — nay  with  the  agencies  of 
moral  evil  Itself.  In  truth,  our  God  does  not 
exist  in  the  apprehension  of  Pantheistic  thinkers; 
since,  when  such  truths  as  creation  and  personal- 
ity are  denied,  the  very  Idea  of  God  Is  funda- 
mentally sapped,  and  .  .  .  the  broad  practical 
result  is  in  reality  neither  more  nor  less  than 
Atheism."  The  writer  of  this  passage  proves 
nothing  by  his  arguments  but  his  fundamental  in- 
ability to  understand  a  creed  which  belongs  to  a 
plane  of  thought  on  which  his  mind  has  never 
learned  to  move :  and,  having  misrepresented  that 
creed  beyond  recognition,  he  brands  It  with  a  title 
which  he  regards  as  In  the  highest  degree  oppro- 
brious and  offensive.  "Men  become  personal," 
says  Dr.  Newman,  "when  logic  fails;  it  is  their 
mode  of  appealing  to  their  own  primary  elements 
of  thought  and  their  own  Illative  sense,  against 
the  principles  and  the  judgment  of  another." 
When  A  calls  B  an  atheist,  he  does  not  neces- 
sarily mean  that  B  denies  the  existence  of  God. 
What  he  does  mean  is  that  B's  conception  of  God 
differs  fundamentally  from  his  own,  and  that  he 
cannot  by  any  effort  of  thought  place  himself  at 
B's  point  of  view. 

On  the  whole,  then,  I  Incline  to  the  opinion 
that  Christianity  calls  the  teaching  of  Buddha 
atheistic,  chiefly  because  it  suspects  that  behind 
his  schem.e  of  life  and  at  the  heart  of  his  silence 
dwells  a  rival  conception  of  God.     If  this  Is  so, 


2o6       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

Christianity  has  misplaced  its  censure ;  for  if  trust 
Is  of  the  essence  of  faith,  there  is  no  conception 
of  God  to  which  the  term  atheistic  Is  so  strangely 
Inappropriate  as  to  that  which  sealed  the  lips  of 
Buddha.  Curiosity  and  doubt  are  the  foster- 
mothers  of  theology;  but  he  who  has  once  con- 
vinced himself,  as  Buddha  must  have  done,  that 
light  and  love  are  at  the  heart  of  the  Universe, 
ceases  to  be  curious  about  God.  By  the  glow  of 
his  radiant  and  all-embracing  optimism  the  petty 
theories  by  which  man  seeks  to  justify  to  himself 
the  ways  of  God  and  his  own  timid  faith  in  God, 
are  seen  to  be  worthless  and  vain.  The  sceptics 
who  pride  themselves  on  their  "orthodoxy"  are 
startled  and  alarmed  by  his  silence.  But  out  of 
its  depths  comes  forth,  whenever  one  listens  for 
it,  a  message,  not  of  atheistic  denial  but  of  whole- 
hearted trust  in  God, — trust  so  full,  so  firmly 
rooted,  and  so  sure  of  itself,  that  silence  alone 
can  measure  its  strength  and  its  serenity. 

"And  I  say  to  mankind,  Be  not  curious  about  God, 
For  I  who  am  curious  about  each  am  not  curious  about 

God, 
(No  array  of  terms  can  say  how  much  I  am  at  peace  about 
God  and  about  death)." 

(3)  The  Pessimism  of  Buddha. 

In  each  of  the  charges  that  it  brings  against 
the  teaching  of  Buddha,  the  West  delimits  with 
precision  the  range  of  its  own  thought.  When 
it  attempts  to  prove  that  Buddha  denied  the  Ego, 


THE  SECRET  OF  BUDDHA      207 

what  It  succeeds  In  proving  Is  that  Its  own  concep- 
tion of  the  Ego  Is  as  narrow  and  commonplace 
as  that  of  the  materialists  and  seml-materlallsts 
of  Buddha's  day.  For  the  only  reason  that  It 
gives  for  ascribing  to  Buddha  denial  of  the  Ego 
Is  that  he  refused  to  Identify  It  with  any  of  the 
things — form,  sensation  and  the  like — of  which 
the  "Ignorant,  unconverted  man"  says,  "This  Is 
mine;  this  am  I." 

So,  too,  when  the  West  accuses  Buddha  of 
atheism,  It  tells  us,  by  Implication,  how  crudely 
anthropomorphic  Is  Its  own  conception  of  God. 
Buddha,  who  refused  to  individualise  the  Ego, 
would  have  been  false  to  his  deepest  convictions 
had  he  allowed  himself.  In  any  respect  or  degree, 
to  Individualise  the  Supreme  Reality.  But  be- 
cause he  kept  silence  about  God  rather  than  use 
words  which  might  seem  (however  figuratively) 
to  Individualise  him,  he  Is  held  to  have  "denied 
the  Divine."  This  means  that  If  the  West  may 
not  worship  the  Jewish  Jehovah  or  some  kindred 
deity,  It  will  reject  as  untenable  the  whole  Idea  of 
God. 

Let  us  now  consider  the  charge  of  pessimism 
which  Is  so  often  brought  against  Buddha.  In 
formulating  this  charge,  the  West  defines  with 
precision  the  limits  of  Its  own  conceptions,  first 
of  happiness  and  then  of  the  Universe.  The  true 
pessimist — who  Is  also  the  true  atheist — is  he 
who  sees  darkness,   and  darkness   only,   at  the 


2o8       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

heart  of  the  Universe.  Was  Buddha  a  pessimist 
in  this  sense  of  the  word?  That  he  regarded  the 
earth-life  as  full  of  sorrow  Is  undeniable.  Does 
this  convict  him  of  pessimism?  Not  unless  the 
earth-life  Is  the  only  life,  and  the  visible  world 
the  "all  of  being." 

The  Impermanence  of  everything  earthly 
seems  to  have  impressed  Itself  deeply  on  Indian 
thought.  In  the  West  we  live,  and  are  content  to 
live,  from  year  to  year,  and  even  from  day  to 
day;  and  we  regard  as  permanent  things  that  will 
last  unchanged  for  a  few  generations,  or  even  for 
a  few  years.  But  the  far-sighted  Indian  mind, 
looking  backward  and  forward  through  vast 
stretches  of  time,  saw  that  sooner  or  later  every- 
thing outward,  however  secure  of  life  It  might 
seem  to  be,  must  change  and  fade  and  pass  away. 
To  the  Brahmanic  thinkers  the  Impermanence  of 
things  was  a  proof  of  their  unreality.  But  Bud- 
dha, who  made  his  appeal,  first  and  foremost, 
to  the  "general  heart  of  man,"  saw  that  imper- 
manence reveals  Itself  to  the  many,  not  as  un- 
reality but  as  sorrow.  He  saw  also  that  the  con- 
nection between  impermanence  and  sorrow  Is 
the  outcome  of  the  widespread  tendency  to  mis- 
take the  impermanent  for  the  real.  Men  cling 
to  shadows  and  lean  on  reeds.  The  shadows  fail 
them,  and  so  cause  disappointment  and  disillus- 
ionment. The  reeds  "pierce  their  bosoms,"  "and 
then  they  bleed."     Seeing  that  this  was  so  and 


THE  SECRET  OF  BUDDHA      209 

must  be  so,  Buddha  did  what  he  could  to  make 
men  realise  that  this  life,  as  they  conceived  of  it, 
was  full  of  suffering.  But  he  did  this,  not  be- 
cause he  despaired  of  Nature,  but  because  he  had 
unbounded  trust  in  her.  Far  from  teaching  men 
that  life  was  intrinsically  evil,  he  taught  them 
that  the  evil  in  it,  the  suffering  which  seemed  to 
be  of  its  essence,  was  in  large  measure  the  result 
of  their  own  ignorance — their  "ignorance  of  the 
true  being  and  the  true  value  of  the  Universe" — 
and  that  those  who  could  detach  themselves  from 
whatever  was  impermanent  and  changeable 
might,  even  while  on  earth,  enjoy  a  happiness 
higher  and  purer  than  any  that  the  soul  of  man 
could  consciously  desire.  So  far  was  he  from 
being  a  pessimist,  in  the  deeper  and  darker  sense 
of  the  word,  that  at  the  heart  of  Nature  he  could 
see  nothing  but  light.  If  that  light  dazzled  his 
eyes  and  blinded  him  to  the  lesser  light  that  plays 
over  the  surface  of  life,  his  blindness  was  a  proof, 
not  of  the  despair  of  his  soul,  but  of  the  very  ex- 
cess of  its  optimistic  faith. 

There  are  passages  in  the  "Imitation  of 
Christ"  which  might  have  been  written  by  the 
Sages  of  the  Upanishads.  Such  are  "Amor  ex 
Deo  natus  est;  nee  potest  nisi  in  Deo  requies- 
cere."  "Fili,  ego  debeo  esse  finis  tuus  supremus 
et  ultimus,  si  vere  desideras  esse  beatus."  "Om- 
nia vanitas  praster  amare  Deum  et  isti  soli  ser- 
vire."     If  Indian  idealism  is  pessimistic,  so  is  the 


210       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

outlook  on  earth  and  on  life  which  finds  expres- 
sion in  these  inspired  aphorisms.  But  surely  it  is 
not  pessimism  but  abounding  optimism  which 
makes  a  man  pitch  his  standard  of  happiness  im- 
measurably high,  and  yet  believe  that  the  re- 
sources of  the  Universe  are  more  than  equal  to 
any  demand  that  the  aspiring  heart  may  make 
upon  them.  He  who  could  say  to  his  followers : 
*'What  you  deem  happiness  is  unworthy  of  the 
name.  There  are  better  things  than  this  in  store 
for  you.  There  are  treasures  of  happiness  in 
store  for  you, — pure,  perfect,  imperishable,  real. 
These  will  be  given  to  you  freely  if  you  will  but 
win  them  for  yourselves"  : — he  who  could  saythis 
(or  the  equivalent  of  this)  had  reached  the  high- 
est conceivable  level  of  optimism.  To  accuse  him 
of  pessimism  is  to  make  confession  of  one's  own 
lack  of  imagination,  of  insight,  and  of  faith. 
Those  who  believe  that  the  surface  life  is  the  only 
life  and  that  its  pleasures  are  the  beginning  and 
end  of  happiness,  and  who  assume  that  Buddha's 
faith  coincided  with  their  own,  may  well  regard 
him,  when  they  learn  that  he  saw  nothing  but  sor- 
row and  suffering  in  the  surface  life  and  its  pleas- 
ures, as  the  gloomiest  and  most  uncompromising 
of  pessimists.  But  the  charge  that  they  bring 
against  him  recoils  upon  themselves.  If  the  sur- 
face life  is  the  only  life,  and  if  its  pleasures  are 
the  beginning  and  end  of  happiness,  then  indeed 
there  is  darkness — the  darkness  of  death — at  the 


THE  SECRET  OF  BUDDHA      211 

heart  of  the  Universe.  But  Buddha^s  conception 
of  hfe,  If  he  was  true,  as  he  believed  himself  to 
be,  to  "the  spirit  of  the  ancient  faith,"  was  the 
exact  opposite  of  this;  and  what  he  saw  at  the 
heart  of  the  Universe  was,  not  the  darkness  of 
death,  but  the  glory  of  Nirvana. 

(4)  The  Egoism  of  Buddha, 

On  this  point  the  Western  critics  of  Buddhism 
are  divided.  Some  of  them.  Including  Dr.  Rhys 
Davids,  Dr.  Paul  Carus,and  other  enemies  of  the 
Ego,  contend  that  Buddha's  teaching  was  ultra- 
stoical.  In  that  he  bade  men  do  right  for  right's 
sake  only,  the  sole  reward  which  the  doer  was  al- 
lowed to  look  forward  to  being  the  enjoyment  of 
Inward  peace  during  that  twilight  hour  which 
should  precede  the  final  extinction  of  his  life.* 
Others,  Including  the  critics  who  seek  to  depre- 
ciate Buddhism  In  the  supposed  Interest  of  Chris- 
tianity, contend  that  Buddha  was  an  egoistic 
hedonist,  who  taught  each  man  In  turn  to  think 
of  himself  and  his  own  welfare  only,  and  whose 
conception  of  happiness  had  so  little  In  It  of  Ideal- 
Ism  or  aspiration  that  It  scarcely  rose  above  the 
level  of  providing  for  humanity  an  early  escape 
from  sorrow  and  pain. 

The  answer  to  those  who  regard  Buddha  as 
ultra-stoical  Is  that,  as  a  matter  of  plain  historical 

*An  event  which  his  own  right-doing  would  have  greatly 
accelerated. 


212       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

fact,  what  he  set  before  men,  when  he  bade  them 
enter  the  Path,  was  the  prospect,  not  of  doing 
right  for  right's  sake  (he  would  probably  have 
seen  no  meaning  in  those  words)  but  of  winning 
release  from  suffering, — the  suffering  of  those 
who  struggle  in  the  w^hirlpool  of  rebirth, — and 
of  entering  into  bliss, — the  bliss  of  those  who 
will  return  to  earth  no  more. 

In  giving  this  answer  I  may  seem  to  justify  the 
critics  who  brand  Buddha's  scheme  of  life  as  ego- 
istic. But  no.  Buddha's  scheme  of  life  was  as 
far  from  being  egoistic  as  from  being  ultra- 
stoical.  It  is  the  word  self  that  misleads  us. 
With  the  doubtful  exception  of  the  word  Nature, 
there  is  no  word  in  which  there  are  so  many  pit- 
falls. When  we  ask  whether  a  given  scheme  of 
life  is  egoistic  or  not,  our  answer  will  entirely  de- 
pend on  the  range  of  the  self  for  which  the 
scheme  in  question  makes  provision.  To  get 
away  from  self  is  impossible ;  but  it  may  be  pos- 
sible to  widen  self  till  it  loses  its  individuality  and 
becomes  wholly  selfless.  Long  before  that  ideal 
point  has  been  reached,  long  before  the  individ- 
ual has  become  one  with  the  Universal  Self,  the 
word  egoistic  will  have  lost  its  accepted  meaning. 

That  Buddha's  teaching  was  entirely  free  from 
the  cant  of  altruism  may  be  admitted  without 
hesitation.  Accepting  as  a  fact,  which  can  neither 
be  gainsaid  nor  ignored,  that  every  man  naturally 
and  instinctively  seeks  his  own  happiness,  and 


THE  SECRET  OF  BUDDHA      213 

that  therefore  in  the  last  resort  the  desire  for 
happiness  Is  the  only  motive  to  which  the  moralist 
can  appeal,  Buddha  took  upon  himself  to  teach 
men  to  distinguish  the  semblance  of  happiness 
from  the  reality,  to  detach  themselves  from  the 
former  and  to  win  their  way  to  the  latter.  "Tous 
les  hommes,"  says  Pascal,  "recherchent  d'etre 
heureux:  cela  est  sans  exception.  Quelques  dlf- 
ferents  moyens  qu'Ils  y  emplolent,  lis  tendent  tous 
a  ce  but.  C'est  le  motif  de  toutes  les  actions  de 
tous  les  hommes,  jusqu'a  ceux  qui  vont  se  pen- 
dre."  It  is  impossible  for  me  to  prefer  my  neigh- 
bour's happiness  to  my  own;  for  if  I  am  asked 
why  I  take  such  pains  to  make  him  happy,  I  can 
but  answer  (in  the  last  resort)  that  it  makes  me 
happy  to  do  so. 

Buddha's  teaching  is  equally  free  from  the 
cant  of  Stoicism.  To  bid  men  do  right  for  right's 
sake  "In  the  scorn  of  consequence,"  is  as  though 
a  doctor  should  order  his  patients  to  eat  the  right 
sort  of  food  for  the  sake  of  its  rightness,  and 
without  regard  to  its  effect  on  the  health  of  the 
eater.  What  is  it  that  constitutes  rightness  in 
food, — and  In  conduct?  The  right  food  (from 
a  doctor's  point  of  view)  is  presumably  the  food 
that  ministers  most  effectively  to  the  health  of 
the  patient;  and  It  Is  in  the  interest  of  his  health, 
and  not  of  any  abstract  conception  of  rightness, 
that  the  patient  is  advised  to  eat  it.  It  is  the 
same,  mutatis  mutandis,  with  right  conduct.  The 


214       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

exhortation  to  do  right  for  right's  sake  Is  saved 
from  being  meaningless  only  by  the  tacit  assump- 
tion that  right  doing  makes,  on  the  whole  and  In 
the  long  run,  for  the  happiness  of  the  doer. 
Indeed,  It  Is  because  such  and  such  courses 
of  action  make  for  the  true  happiness  of  him 
who  follows  them,  and  for  no  other  reason, 
that  we  call  them  right.  In  other  words,  the 
epithet  right,  as  applied  to  conduct,  withholds 
Its  meaning  from  us  until  we  define  It  In 
terms  of  happiness.  That  being  so.  It  Is 
surely  better  that  the  moralist  should  make  his 
appeal  (as  Buddha  openly  did)  to  man's  un- 
quenchable desire  for  happiness  than  to  a  motive 
which  would  be  utterly  Ineffective  were  It  not 
that  Its  air  of  sublime  disinterestedness  Is,  In  the 
nature  of  things,  a  hollow  sham. 

But,  while  Buddha  steered  clear  of  the  quick- 
sands of  altruism  and  pseudo-stolcism,  he  took 
care  not  to  wreck  his  scheme  of  life  on  the  less 
dangerous,  because  more  plainly  visible,  rock  of 
egoism.  It  Is  when  we  begin  to  study  the  details 
of  the  scheme,  that  we  see  how  little  It  deserves 
to  be  called  egoistic.  Based  as  It  Is  on  the  con- 
viction that  the  Ego — the  real  self — Is  not  to  be 
Identified  with  "form,"  with  "sensation,"  with 
"perception,"  or  with  anything  else  that  Is  Imper- 
manent and  changeable.  It  keeps  one  aim  steadily 
In  view, — to  detach  man,  by  a  course  of  self-dis- 
cipline which  may  last  through  many  lives,  from 


THE  SECRET  OF  BUDDHA      215 

each  of  his  apparent  or  lower  selves,  and  to  help 
him  to  find  his  true  self.  As  it  is  attachment  to 
the  apparent  or  lower  self — that  tendency  to 
identify  oneself  with  what  is  impermanent  and 
changeable,  which  makes  one  say  of  this  thing 
and  of  that,  "This  is  mine:  this  am  I :  this  is  my 
Ego" — as  it  is  this  clinging,  grasping,  self-assert- 
ing frame  of  mind  which  is  the  root  of  all  selfish- 
ness (to  use  a  homelier  word  than  egoism)^  it  is 
clear  that  Buddha's  scheme  of  life,  far  from 
being  egoistic  or  self-regarding,  was  In  its  essence 
a  scheme  for  the  extirpation  of  "self." 

Buddha  did  not  say  to  his  disciples,  what  the 
altruist  professes  to  say,  "Thou  shalt  love  thy 
neighbour  better  than  thyself."  He  did  not  even 
say  to  them  in  so  many  words,  "Thou  shalt  love 
thy  neighbour  as  thyself."  But  he  bade  them 
enter  a  path  which,  if  faithfully  followed,  would 
lead  each  man  at  last  to  love  all  men  as  himself. 
For  if  one  is  to  escape  from  the  impermanent, 
one  must  take  refuge  in  the  Eternal;  and  the 
Eternal  and  the  Universal  are  the  same  funda- 
mental reality  looked  at  from  different  points  of 
view.  Every  precept  that  Buddha  gave  has  one 
positive  aim  in  view, — to  help  the  soul  to  expand 
its  life  or,  In  a  word,  to  grow.  But  to  the  proc- 
ess of  soul-growth  there  are  no  assignable  limits. 
The  soul  has  not  attained  to  maturity,  has  not 
fulfilled  its  destiny,  has  not  found  its  true  self 
until  (according  to  the  sublime  conception  which 


2i6       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

Is  at  the  heart  of  the  "ancient  faith")  It  has  be- 
come one  with  the  Universal  Self,  and  In  becom- 
ing one  with  It  has  become  one  with  all  men  and 
all  things.  When  that  stage  has  been  reached, 
when  the  Ego  has  become  all-embracing,  the  last 
trace  of  "egoism"  will  have  vanished,  and  the 
precept,  "Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thy- 
self" (the  real  meaning  of  which  will  not  till 
then  have  been  apprehended)  will  at  last  have 
been  fulfilled.  So,  too,  will  the  desire  of  the 
heart  for  happiness. 

It  Is  by  the  Christian,  the  professed  follower 
of  Christ,  that  the  charge  of  egoism  is  most  fre- 
quently brought  against  the  teaching  of  Buddha. 
It  Is  strange  that  such  a  charge  should  come  from 
such  a  quarter.  Will  the  Christian  consent  to 
brand  as  egoistic  the  teaching  of  his  own  Master? 
The  conception  of  life  which  underlies  Christ's 
searching  question:  "What  is  a  man  profited  if 
he  shall  gain  the  whole  world  and  lose  his  own 
soul  ?"  is,  according  to  the  view  that  we  are  able 
to  take  of  it,  either  ignobly  selfish  or  sublimely 
self-forgetful.  On  this  point  opinions  may  differ. 
What  Is  certain  Is  that  the  gospel  of  Buddha  is 
neither  more  nor  less  "egoistic"  than  the  gospel 
of  Christ.  For  at  the  heart  of  each  gospel  Is  the 
same  overmastering  conviction  that  It  is  better 
for  a  man  to  find  "his  own  soul" — his  own  true 
self — than  to  "gain  the  whole  world." 

In  conclusion.     The  desire  for  unreal  happU 


THE  SECRET  OF  BUDDHA      217 

ness — the  Protean  desire  which  Buddha  sought 
to  extinguish — leads  us  Into  all  the  highways  and 
byways  of  selfishness,  and  into  every  haunt  of 
error  and  delusion;  and  the  phantom  which  Is 
ever  flitting  before  us  ends  by  eluding  our  grasp. 
But  the  desire  for  real  happiness — the  desire 
which  Buddha  at  once  appealed  to  and  strove  to 
foster — Is  the  desire  (self-justifying  and  self- 
fulfilling)  for  oneness  with  the  All;  nor  will  that 
"egoistic'*  desire  have  found  final  fulfilment  till 
it  has  provided  an  escape  for  the  soul  from  the 
prison-house  of  "self"  Into  the  boundless  ether  of 
love. 

( 5 )  The  Nihilism  of  Buddha. 

The  supreme  end  of  Buddhist  endeavour,  the 
last  term  in  its  ascending  "series,"  Is  Nirvana. 
When  the  Path  has  been  followed  to  Its  goal, 
when  the  victory  over  self  has  been  fully 
won,  when  the  prize  of  victory  has  been 
fully  earned,  the  emancipated  soul  (If  I  may 
use  that  word  "without  prejudice")  passes 
away  from  earth,  passes  beyond  the  vision 
of  "Gods  and  men"  and  enters  the  bliss  of 
Nirvana.  What  does  this  mean?  The  "Per- 
fect One"  has  disappeared  from  the  eye  of 
thought  behind  the  veil  of  human  experience. 
What  Is  there  behind  that  veil?  What  Is  there 
behind  the  last  of  the  many  veils  which  life  (as 
we  who  are  living  on  earth  understand  the  word) 


21 8       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

hangs  before  our  eyes?  The  question  as  to  the 
destiny  of  the  Perfect  One  and  the  question  as 
to  the  real  life  of  those  who  are  now  on  earth  are 
(as  Sarlputta  saw  clearly)  one  and  the  same. 
What  Is  the  answer  to  them  ? 

The  answer  which  the  learned  criticism  of  the 
West  ordinarily  gives,  and  which  the  popular 
criticism  of  the  West  faithfully  echoes,  is,  in  a 
word,  Nothing.  ''Tout  se  reunit,"  says  Barthe- 
lemy  Salnt-HIlaIre,  "pour  demontrer  que  le  Nir- 
vana n'est  au  fond  que  Faneantlssement  definltif  et 
absolu  de  tous  les  elements  qui  composent  I'exlst- 
ence."  According  to  Eugene  Burnouf,  "Le  Nir- 
vana est  Faneantlssement  complet,  non  seulement 
des  elements  materlels  de  I'exlstence,  mals  de  plus 
et  surtout  du  prIncIpe  pensant."  These  state- 
ments are  typical,  and  I  need  not  add  to  them. 

The  word  Nirvana  means  "going  out"  or  "ex- 
tinction." But,  as  Dr.  Rhys  Davids  explains 
with  force  and  clearness,  what  Is  extinguished, 
when  Nirvana  Is  won.  Is  not  existence  but  passion 
and  desire.  In  support  of  this  thesis  Dr.  Rhys 
Davids  appeals  to  some  verses  in  one  of  the  Sa- 
cred Books  of  Buddhism,  In  which  "we  have  an 
argument  based  on  the  logical  assumption  that  if 
a  positive  exists  its  negative  must  also  exist;  if 
there  is  heat,  there  must  be  cold;  and  so  on.  In 
one  of  these  pairs  we  find  existence  opposed,  not 
to  Nirvana,  but  to  non-existence;  whilst  In  an- 
other the  three  fires  [of  lust,  hatred  and  delu- 


THE  SECRET  OF  BUDDHA      219 

slon]  are  opposed  to  Nirvana."  But,  though  Dr. 
Rhys  Davids  is  careful  to  distinguish  Nirvana 
from  annihilation,  he  is  bound  by  his  own  as- 
sumption, that  Buddha  denied  the  Ego,  denied 
"that  there  is  anything  of  any  kind  which  con- 
tinues to  exist,  in  any  manner,  after  death,"  to 
regard  Nirvana  as  the  prelude  to  annihilation. 
For  him,  then,  and  for  those  who  think  with  him, 
Nirvana,  on  which  the  Buddhist  writings  have 
ever  ''lavished"  ''awe-struck  and  ecstatic  praise," 
is  the  twilight  hour  that  precedes  the  night  of 
Nothingness, — an  hour  in  which  the  "Perfect 
One,"  having  at  last  extinguished  the  fires  of  lust, 
hatred  and  delusion,  enjoys  the  bliss  of  perfect 
peace.  "Death,  utter  death,  with  no  new  life  to 
follow,  is  a  result  of  but  it  is  not  Nirvana." 

It  matters  little  whether  Nirvana  is  itself  the 
night  of  Nothingness,  or  the  twilight  hour  which 
precedes  that  night.  The  goal  of  the  Path  is.  In 
either  case,  the  premature  annihilation  of  him 
who  walks  in  it.  When  the  Perfect  One  has 
lifted  the  last  veil  of  illusion  and  passed  behind  it 
into  the  reality  which  it  hides  from  thought,  he 
becomes  absorbed  into  Nothing.  It  follows  that 
the  self-existent  Reality  which  underlies  all  ap- 
pearances and  which  is  therefore  at  the  very  heart 
of  the  Universe  is,  in  a  word.  Nothing. 

Did  Buddha  really  believe  this?  Was  It  in 
the  strength  of  this  supreme  negation  that  he  de- 
voted his  life  to  the  enlightenment  and  emanclpa- 


220       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

tion  of  his  fellow-men,  and  won  to  his  will  the 
hearts  of  all  who  listened  to  his  teaching?    The 
hypothesis  which  we  are  invited  to  accept  as  an 
established  conclusion,  is  so  wildly  improbable, 
that  we  have  a  right  to  ask  those  who  formulate 
It  to  bring  forward  strong  documentary  evidence 
in  support  of  it.    As  it  happens,  no  such  evidence 
is  forthcoming.     On  the  one  hand,  the  passages 
In  the  Buddhist  Scriptures  on  which  the  hypoth- 
esis has  been  based  all  admit  of  an  entirely  differ- 
ent interpretation, — namely,  that  after  the  death 
of  the  body  the  Perfect  One  ceases  to  exist,  not 
absolutely,  but  only  in  the  sense  which  "the  igno- 
rant, unconverted  man"   attaches  to  the  word 
existence.    On  the  other  hand,  there  are  passages 
In  the  Buddhist  Scriptures  in  which  the  hypoth- 
esis is  directly  or  indirectly  traversed;  such  as  the 
dialogue    between    Yamaka    and    Sariputta,    in 
which  the  belief  that  "on  the  dissolution  of  the 
body  the  monk  who  has  lost  all  depravity  is  an- 
nihilated" is  first  condemned  as  a  wicked  heresy 
and  then  conclusively  refuted;  or,  again,  as  the 
dialogue  between   King   Pasenadi   and   the   nun 
Khema,  in  which  the  question  as  to  the  existence 
of  the  Perfect  One  after  death  is  shown  to  be  un- 
answerable,  not  because  the   Perfect  One  will 
then  have  ceased  to  be,  but  because  he  will  have 
passed  beyond  the  reach  of  human  thought. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  (though  the  point  seems 
to  have  escaped  the  notice  of  the  Western  stu- 


THE  SECRET  OF  BUDDHA      221 

dents  of  Buddhism)  that  the  question  *'What  be- 
comes of  the  ordinary,  unemancipated  man  when 
he  dies?"  is  never  asked  in  any  Buddhist  dia- 
logue. Why  is  this?  Evidently  because  the  doc- 
trine of  re-incarnation  is  the  accepted  answer  to 
the  question.  What  Interests  King  PasenadI,  the 
monk  Yamaka,  and  others  Is  not  the  general  ques- 
tion "What  comes  after  death?"  but  the  particu- 
lar question,  "What  becomes  of  the  Perfect  One 
when  he  finally  passes  away  from  earth?"  The 
answer  to  this  question  is  always  the  same.  "Do 
not  ask.  The  question  is  unanswerable.  The 
Perfect  One  passes,  when  he  dies,  beyond  the  re- 
motest horizon  of  human  thought;  and  w^hen 
thought  fails,  words  can  do  nothing  but  perplex 
and  mislead." 

The  truth  is  that  here,  as  elsewhere,  when  the 
West  seems  to  be  passing  judgment  on  Bud- 
dhism, it  Is  really  delimiting  the  range  of  its  own 
thought.  To  the  consideration  of  the  problem  of 
the  Perfect  One's  final  state,  as  of  all  kindred 
problems,  Western  thought  carries  with  It  the 
metaphysical  assumption  which  has  obsessed  It 
for  two  thousand  years, — the  assumption  that 
nothing  exists,  in  the  order  of  Nature,  except 
what  Is  perceptible  by  man's  bodily  senses.  The 
religious  thought  of  the  West  has  always  taken 
refuge  from,  the  consequences  of  this  assumption 
in  the  dream-world  of  the  Supernatural.  But  the 
dualism   of  Nature   and  the   Supernatural  was 


222       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

(and  Is)  entirely  foreign  to  Indian  thought.  See- 
ing, then,  that  Buddha  transported  the  Perfect 
One  beyond  the  vision  of  Gods  and  men,  and  yet 
provided  no  asylum  for  him  in  any  Supernatural 
heaven,  the  Western  exponents  of  Buddhism  find 
themselves  driven  to  conclude,  with  the  monk 
Yamaka,  that  "on  the  dissolution  of  his  body" 
the  Perfect  One  "is  annihilated,  perishes,  and 
does  not  exist  after  death."  But  it  is  Western, 
not  Indian,  thought  which  creates  the  vacuum 
that  receives  the  Perfect  One's  emancipated  soul. 
When  Dr.  Rhys  Davids,  after  quoting  Buddha's 
words,  "While  his  body  shall  remain  he  will  be 
seen  by  Gods  and  men,  but  after  the  termination 
of  life,  upon  the  dissolution  of  the  body,  neither 
Gods  nor  men  will  see  him,"  asks:  "Would  it  be 
possible  in  a  more  complete  or  categorical  man- 
ner to  deny  that  there  is  any  soul — anything  of 
any  kind  which  continues  to  exist.  In  any  manner, 
after  death?"  there  is  an  obvious  answer  to  his 
triumphant  challenge.  It  is  by  assuming  that 
Buddha,  too,  believed  In  the  Intrinsic  reality  of 
what  Is  perceptible  and  the  non-existence  of  what 
is  imperceptible,  that  he  proves  his  point.  But 
has  he  any  right  to  make  that  assumption?  Is 
not  Buddha's  attitude  towards  the  problem  of  re- 
ality the  very  question  which  is  really  (though 
not  ostensibly)  in  dispute?  And  inasmuch  as 
Buddha  devoted  his  life  to  teaching  men  that  the 
perceptible  Is  the  w^/real,  Is  It  not  rash,  to  say  the 


THE  SECRET  OF  BUDDHA      223 

least,  to  assume  offhand  that  his  mind  was  ruled 
by  the  fundamental  postulate  of  Western 
thought?  Yet,  unless  his  mind  was  ruled  by  that 
postulate,  the  words  on  which  Dr.  Rhys  Davids 
lays  so  much  stress  can  be  shown  to  have  another 
meaning  than  that  which  he  ascribes  to  them,  and 
the  conclusion — that  Buddha  regarded  death  as 
the  end  of  life — instead  of  being  obviously  true, 
becomes  demonstrably  false.  What  Buddha 
meant  (if  we  may  argue  from  the  general  tenor 
of  his  teaching)  when  he  said  that,  upon  the  dis- 
solution of  the  Perfect  One's  body,  neither  Gods 
nor  men  would  see  him,  was  not  that  the  Perfect 
One  would  then  pass  into  non-existence,  but 
rather  that  then  at  last  he  would  attain  to  abso- 
lute reality.  For  the  perceptible  world,  as  Bud- 
dha conceived  of  it,  is  the  world  of  dreams  and 
shadows;  and  it  is  therefore  clear  that,  until  the 
Perfect  One  has  passed,  wholly  and  irrevocably, 
beyond  the  horizon  of  perception,*  he  has  not 
found  rest  in  the  Real. 

Let  us  now  attempt,  in  defiance  of  Buddha's 
express  prohibition,  to  penetrate  the  mystery  of 
Nirvana.  The  mystery  is,  in  a  sense,  final.  The 
Path  ends — for  good  and  all — in  Nirvana.  The 
Western  hypothesis  that  Nirvana  is  not  the  final 

*It  is  scarcely  necessary  for  me  to  say  that  throughout 
this  book  such  words  as  perception,  consciousness,  thought 
and  the  like  are  used  in  the  sense  which  popular  usage  has 
fixed  and  sanctioned.  The  Perfect  One  is  imperceptible, 
in  the  sense  which  the  word  ordinarily  bears,  but  he  is  no 
doubt  perceptible,  even  in  Nirvana, — by  his  peers. 


224       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

state  of  the  Perfect  One,  but  the  prelude  to  that 
state,  is  wholly  gratuitous.  Not  a  word  is  said 
in  any  of  the  passages  with  which  the  students  of 
Buddhism  have  made  us  familiar,  which  might 
seem  to  suggest  that  the  Nirvanic  state  ends  with 
the  death  of  the  Perfect  One's  body,  or  that  there 
is  any  state  of  existence  (or  non-existence)  be- 
yond it.*  That  Buddha,  who  turned  the  prying 
mind  back  on  the  hither  brink  of  Nirvana,  shoulcf 
have  looked  bej^ond  Nirvana  and  told  men  what 
was  awaiting  them  on  its  farther  shore,  is  in  the 
highest  degree  improbable.  The  progress  of  the 
Perfect  One  is  followed  till  Nirvana  begins : 

"But  there  sight  fails.     No  heart  may  know 
The  bliss  when  life  is  done." 

The  question,  then,  which  we  have  to  ask  our- 
selves is  this:  What  goal  would  he  be  likely  to 
reach  who  followed  the  Path  to  the  end?  This 
question  suggests  a  second:  What  is  the  Path 
supposed  to  do  for  him  who  walks  in  it?  The 
answer  to  this  question  is  embodied  in  Buddha's 
scheme  of  life.     The  Path  detaches  him  who 

*I  do  not  wish  to  suggest  that  Buddha  himself  regarded 
the  Nirvanic  state  as  final.  That  there  are  heights  beyond 
the  loftiest  and  remotest  heights  that  man  can  dream  of  win- 
ning, will  be  taken  for  granted  by  every  one  who  is  able  to 
assimilate  the  idea  of  spiritual  development;  and  that  there 
were  heights  even  beyond  the  sublime  sVcyline  of  Nirvana 
was  doubtless  taken  for  granted  by  the  far-seeing  and  daringly 
imaginative  mind  of  Buddha.  But  having  to  address  him- 
self to  ordinary  men  and  not  to  "adepts,"  he  was  content  to 
direct  the  eyes  of  his  disciples  to  the  infinitely  distant  goal  of 
Nirvanic  bliss  and  peace,  and  to  keep  absolute  silence  as  to 
what  might  lie  beyond  that  horizon. 


THE  SECRET  OF  BUDDHA      225 

walks  In  It  from  the  Impermanent,  the  change- 
able, the  phenomenal.  But  It  does  this,  not  by 
the  ascetic  curtailment  of  the  range  of  his  life, 
but  by  the  progressive  expansion  of  his  conscious- 
ness. It  will  be  remembered  that  Buddha  told 
his  disciples  In  the  earliest  of  his  discourses  that 
they  were  to  steer  a  middle  course  between  the 
"unworthy  and  unreal"  paths  of  pleasure  on  the 
one  side,  and  mortification  on  the  other.  It 
will  also  be  remembered  that  the  precepts  which 
he  gave  them  aimed,  to  make  a  general  state- 
ment, at  the  cultivation  of  two  faculties, — self- 
control  and  sympathy.  The  function  of  self-con- 
trol Is,  on  the  one  hand,  to  train  the  will  for  the 
task  that  awaits  It, — the  task  of  directing  the 
process  of  soul-growth;  and,  on  the  other  hand, to 
prevent  the  lower  and  narrower  self  from  becom- 
ing so  aggressive  as  to  arrest  the  outgrowth  of 
the  higher  and  larger  self.  And  the  function  of 
sympathy,  which  carries  a  man  out  of  himself 
Into  the  lives  of  others,  Is  to  promote  the  out- 
growth of  the  higher  and  larger  self,  by  raising 
the  level  and  widening  the  range  of  one's  life. 
Thus  the  Path  detaches  men  from  the  phenom- 
enal, not  by  cutting  It  out  of  their  lives  or  other- 
wise blinding  them  to  Its  existence,  but  by  giving 
them  the  power  (through  the  expansion  of  their 
consciousness)  of  seeing  It  In  Its  true  proportions 
and  Its  true  light.  It  Is  possible  for  one  who 
walks  In  the  Path  to  take  an  Interest  and  a  pleas- 


226       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

ure  in  the  ephemeral  concerns  of  life,  and  yet  to 
hold  on  to  them  by  the  very  lightest  of  threads. 
There  Is  nothing  of  Puritanical  gloom  or  sour- 
ness In  the  teaching  of  Buddha.  The  foreglow 
of  Nirvana  falls  on  the  Path  and  throws  Its  rays 
on  either  side  of  It,  till  those  who  walk  In  It  learn 
at  last  to  take  an  Innocent  delight  even  In  the 
things  which  they  know  to  be  phantasmal. 

Now  the  goal  of  the  Path  Is  the  natural  con- 
summation of  It, — not  a  reward  which  will  be 
given  by  an  omnipotent  onlooker  to  those  who 
have  kept  to  the  Path  and  obeyed  Its  command- 
ments, but  the  end  to  which  the  Path  naturally 
and  Inevitably  leads;  an  end  which  Is  not  merely 
pre-ligured  by  the  Path,  even  In  Its  earlier  stages, 
but  Is  also.  In  some  sort,  present  In  promise  and 
potency  in  those  earlier  (and  all  subsequent) 
stages,  just  as  the  full-grown  oak  is  present  In 
promise  and  potency  In  the  acorn  and  the  sapling, 
or  the  ripened  peach  In  the  fruit-bud  and  the  blos- 
som. And  Inasmuch  as  the  function  of  the  Path 
Is  to  detach  men  from  the  phenomenal  by  ex- 
panding their  consciousness,  and  to  expand  their 
consciousness  by  fostering  the  growth  of  their 
souls,  it  seems  to  follow  that  the  goal  of  the 
Path  will  be  the  Ideal  perfection  of  him  who 
walks  In  It,  and  that  when  this  Ideal  state  has 
been  reached  the  consciousness  of  the  Perfect  One 
(as  we  may  now  call  him)  will  have  become  all- 
embracing,   and  his  detachment  from  the  phe- 


THE  SECRET  OF  BUDDHA      227 

nomenal  complete.  We  are  now  In  a  position  to 
give  this  tentative  and  provisional  answer  to  the 
question,  What  Is  Nirvana?  Nirvana  is  a  state 
of  ideal  spiritual  perfection,  in  which  the  soul, 
having  completely  detached  itself — by  the  force 
of  its  own  natural  expansion — from  what  is  indi- 
vidual, impermanent,  and  phenomenal,  embraces 
and  becomes  one  with  the  Universal,  the  Eternal, 
and  the  Real.  In  other  words,  the  essence  of 
Nirvana  Is  the  finding  of  the  Ideal  self,  In  and 
through  the  attainment  to  oneness — living,  con- 
scious oneness — with  the  All  and  the  Divine. 

It  Is  true  that  Buddha  spoke  of  consciousness 
as  one  of  the  five  things  from  which  the  "learned 
and  noble  disciple"  must  strive  to  detach  himself; 
but  he  obviously  meant  by  consciousness  what  his 
audience,  composed  for  the  most  part  of  ordinary 
unenlightened  men,  would  have  understood  the 
word  to  mean, — that  sense  of  selfhood  which  Is 
based  on  the  sense  of  difference  from  other 
things.  In  the  NIrvanic  consciousness  the  sense 
of  selfhood  is  based  on  the  sense  of  oneness  with 
other  things,  or  rather  of  oneness  with  the  vital 
essence  of  all  things, — with  the  living  Whole. 
When  we  predicate  consciousness  of  him  who 
has  passed  Into  Nirvana,  what  we  mean  is 
that  the  NIrvanic  state  of  being  is  on  the 
farther,  not  on  the  hither,  side  of  conscious- 
ness; that  it  enormously  transcends  what  we, 
with    our    limited    range     of    perception     and 


228       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

thought,  understand  by  consciousness,  but  that 
It  is  reached  by  the  continuance  of  the  same 
process  of  growth  by  which  consciousness  it- 
self has  been  evolved.  The  Western  mind, 
which  is  dominated,  even  in  its  seasons  of  specu- 
lative activity,  by  mathematical  and  mechanical 
conceptions,  understands  by  oneness  with  the  Di- 
vine a  quasi-material  absorption  into  the  Whole, 
which  involves  the  complete  extinction  of  con- 
sciousness In  him  who 

"Slips  into  the  shining  sea." 

The  Indian  conception  of  oneness  with  the  Di- 
vine is  the  polar  opposite  of  this.  If  soul  is  to 
mingle  with  soul  it  must  do  so  as  soul,  preserv- 
ing, yet  raising  to  an  Infinite  power,  all  the  char- 
acteristics of  soul  life, — its  freedom  and  self-com- 
pulsion (which  It  now  realises  as  infinite  energy) , 
Its  thought  (which  It  now  realises  as  Infinite  wis- 
dom), Its  desire  (which  It  now  realises  as  infinite 
love). 

Such,  in  shadowy  outline,  is  the  conception  of 
Nirvana  which  my  study  of  Buddha's  teaching, 
from  the  standpoint  of  Indian  Idealism,  has 
forced  upon  my  mind.  That  I  carried  the  con- 
ception with  me  is  undeniable,  and  that  I  should 
eventually  work  round  to  It  was  no  doubt  pre- 
ordained. But  the  curve  of  thought  which  I 
have  completed  has  helped  me  to  enrich  and 
deepen  the  conception,  for  it  has  enabled  me  to 


THE  SECRET  OF  BUDDHA      229 

trace  the  steps  by  which  the  genius  and  practical 
wisdom  of  one  gifted  Teacher  could  transform  a 
philosophical  idea  into  a  master  principle  of  ac- 
tion, and  so  make  it  available  for  the  daily  needs 
of  mankind.  To  the  Sages  of  the  Upanishads 
re-union  with  the  Divine  was  the  goal  of  medita- 
tive aspiration, — a  goal  which  few  could  hope  to 
reach,  for  the  path  to  it  was  one  which  few  could 
find  and  fewer  still  could  follow.  Buddha  saw 
that  it  was  also  the  goal  of  spiritual  growth,  and 
that  as  such  it  could  be  reached — in  the  fullness 
of  time — by  the  lowliest  and  most  ignorant  of 
men.  But  he  saw  also  that,  as  the  goal  of  spirit- 
ual growth  (and  therefore  of  spiritual  endeav- 
our), it  must  be  pursued  unconsciously;  that  the 
path  to  it  must  be  clearly  defined,  but  that  of  the 
goal  itself  nothing  was  to  be  predicated  except 
that  it  was  the  home  of  happiness  and  peace. 

Dr.  Oldenberg  complains  that  Buddha's  teach- 
ing is  a  "fragment  of  a  circle  to  complete  which 
and  to  find  the  centre  of  which  is  forbidden  by 
the  Thinker."  But  if  we  place  at  the  centre  of 
the  circle  the  sovereign  dogma  of  Indian  ideal- 
ism, if  we  assume  that  Nirvana,  the  admitted  end 
of  Buddhist  desire  and  endeavour,  is  a  state  of 
self-realisation  through  union  with  the  Divine  or 
Universal  Soul,  the  circle  will  complete  itself :  for 
we  shall  see  a  meaning  in  every  precept  that  Bud- 
dha gave,  and  in  every  argument  that  he  used; 
we  shall  see  a  meaning  in  every  discourse  and  dia- 


230      THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

logue  which  Western  thought  has  (on  this  hy- 
pothesis) misunderstood;  we  shall  see  a  meaning 
in  the  Western  misunderstanding  of  Buddha's 
teaching;  we  shall  see  a  meaning  in  Buddha's 
mysterious  silence;  and  we  shall  see  that  his 
schem.e  of  life  was  a  ''perfect  round," — a  coher- 
ent and  consistent  whole.  Nor  are  we  making  a 
random  guess  when  we  Rx  that  particular  centre 
for  Buddha's  circle  of  thought.  "Of  all  plane 
figures  the  circle  alone  has  the  same  curvature  at 
every  point."  If  Buddha's  ethical  teaching  was 
indeed  a  fragment  of  a  circle,  then  it  is  possible 
for  those  who  care  to  do  so,  both  to  complete  the 
circle  and  to  find  its  centre.  But  we  must  be  al- 
lowed to  assume,  before  we  undertake  this  task, 
that  the  fragment  which  is  before  us  is  part  of  a 
circle  and  not  of  any  less  perfect  curve.  The 
conception  which  Western  critics,  in  their  desire 
to  claim  Buddha  as  of  their  own  school  of 
thought,  place  at  the  centre  of  his  philosophy, 
has  the  grave  demerit  of  turning  what  is  sup- 
posed to  be  the  fragment  of  a  circle  into  a  frag- 
ment, or  series  of  fragments,  of  one  of  the  wild- 
est and  most  lawless  of  curves.  But  if  we  as- 
sume that  Buddha's  scheme  of  life,  as  it  existed 
in  his  mind,  was  a  "perfect  round,"  and  that 
what  he  chose  to  formulate  was  a  fragment  of 
that  "perfect  round,"  we  shall  find  that  there  is 
only  one  possible  centre  to  it, — the  conception 
which   history,    psychology,    and   common-sense 


THE  SECRET  OF  BUDDHA      231 

unite  In  suggesting  to  us  as  central, — the  con- 
ception that  the  Universal  Self  Is  the  true  self  of 
each  one  of  us,  and  that  to  realise  the  true  self  Is 
the  destiny  and  the  duty  of  man. 


Chapter  VIII 

THE  BANKRUPTCY  OF  WESTERN  THOUGHT 

THE  higher  thought  of  the  West  is 
bankrupt,  in  the  sense  that  it  can  no 
longer  meet  its  obHgations.  When 
I  say  this  I  do  not  merely  mean  that 
its  liquid  assets  are  less  than  its  lia- 
bilities. It  is  desirable  that  the  liabilities  of 
thought  should  at  all  times  far  exceed  its 
liquid  assets,  and  it  would  point  to  a  lamentable 
lack  of  speculative  enterprise  if  they  did  not. 
What  I  do  mean  is  that  the  liabilities  which 
Western  thought  has  incurred  are  greatly  in  ex- 
cess of  its  resources, — of  its  realisable  as  well  as 
its  liquid  assets. 

Let  us  see  how  this  has  come  to  pass.  The 
function  of  high  thinking  is  to  provide  working 
capital  for  the  speculative  enterprises  of  the  soul. 
The  speculative  enterprises  of  the  soul  take  the 
form  of  spiritual  desires.  The  working  capital 
which  thought  provides  takes  the  form  of  philo- 
sophical ideas, — tentative  and  provisional  theo- 
ries of  things.  As  it  seldom  happens,  in  the 
commercial  world,  that  an  enterprise  which  is 

232 


WESTERN  THOUGHT  233 

thoroughly  successful  does  not  ask,  from  time  to 
time,  for  fresh  capital  In  order  that,  without  de- 
parting from  Its  original  aim.  It  may  widen  the 
field  of  Its  operations  and  reach  a  yet  higher  level 
of  success, — so  In  the  Inner  life  of  man,  when- 
ever the  desires  of  the  heart  receive  genuine  satis- 
faction, the  proof  of  this  lies  In  the  fact  that,  in 
response  to  a  fresh  Influx  of  ideas,  new  desires 
arise  which  are  really  new  developments  of  the 
old,  or,  In  other  words,  that  the  old  desires,  stim- 
ulated and  modified  by  thought,  become  deep- 
ened, widened,  purified,  and  otherwise  trans- 
formed. 

Sometimes,  however,  it  happens  that  the 
"Ideas"  which  thought  provides,  In  response  to 
the  demands  of  spiritual  desire,  become  stereo- 
typed Into  systems  of  "dogma,"  and  as  such  are 
accepted  by  the  heart  as  fully  and  finally  true. 
When  this  happens  the  development  of  spiritual 
desire  ceases,  or,  in  the  language  of  commerce, 
the  soul  becomes  so  unenterprising  that  Its  liabil- 
ities, now  brought  within  a  very  narrow  compass, 
are  fully  met  by  Its  liquid  assets.  In  this  state  of 
ignoble  solvency,  the  soul,  having  ceased  to  grow 
— for  its  desires  are  its  growing  pains — has  be- 
gun to  degenerate  and  to  turn  its  face  towards 
death.  Then  comes  the  Inevitable  reaction.  The 
expansive  energies  of  Nature,  which  triumphant 
dogmatism  had  long  held  In  check,  force  at  last 
a  new  outlet  for  themselves,  and  In  doing  so  stim- 


234      THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

ulate  the  deeper  desires  of  the  heart  Into  new  ac- 
tivity and  direct  them  into  new  channels.  In  such 
an  epoch  the  need  of  the  soul  for  fresh  capital — 
for  new  Ideas — Is  stronger  than  It  has  ever  been, 
but  the  difficulty  of  finding  It  Is  greater.  For  as 
the  soul  has  long  since  closed  Its  capital  account, 
the  sources  of  supply,  which  are  fed  by  the  very 
demands  that  are  made  upon  them,  will  have  long 
since  ceased  to  flow.  The  old  stereotyped  Ideas 
have  satisfied  the  soul  for  so  many  years  that  the 
organs  of  spiritual  thought,  atrophied  by  disuse, 
have  at  last  become  Incapable  of  supplying  new 
Ideas, — the  negative  dogmas  which  man  formu- 
lates In  his  season  of  reaction  and  revolt  being.  If 
anything,  narrower  and  more  rigid  than  the  posi- 
tive dogmas  of  the  churches  and  sects.  What 
happens,  then,  when  the  old  order  changes,  is  that 
the  soul,  carried  by  Its  outburst  of  speculative  en- 
terprise far  beyond  the  limits  of  the  Ideas  which 
had  so  long  sufficed  for  Its  needs,  takes  upon  it- 
self obligations  for  which  Its  working  capital — Its 
spiritual  philosophy — Is  wholly  Inadequate.  The 
end  of  this  Is  that  It  drifts  into  a  state  of  in- 
solvency, in  which  it  pays  the  penalty  of  having 
so  long  been  Ignobly  solvent.  Or,  rather.  It  Is  the 
thought  of  the  age  which  goes  bankrupt,  for 
thought  Is  under  a  permanent  obligation  to 
supply  the  soul.  In  Its  adventurous  moods,  with 
the  capital  which  It  needs  for  its  enterprises. 
This  is  what  has  happened  In  the  West.    And 


WESTERN  THOUGHT  235 

if  we  ask  ourselves  why  this  has  happened,  wc 
can  but  answer  that  Western  thought  has,  from 
the  beginning  of  things,  allowed  itself  to  be  dom- 
inated by  the  ideas  of  the  "average  man."  The 
philosophy  of  the  average  man  is  simplicity  itself. 
He  begins,  as  all  men  necessarily  do,  with  the  ap- 
parent antithesis  of  himself  and  the  outward 
world.  While  his  philosophy  is  in  its  sub-con- 
scious stage,  he  iscontent  to  ascribe  reality  to  both 
the  terms  of  the  antithesis.  But  when  he  begins 
to  reflect,  in  his  crude  way,  on  ''great  matters," 
his  standpoint  changes.  Utterly  incapable  of  sub- 
tle thinking,  his  mind  instinctively  relapses  Into 
the  vulgar  dualism  of  the  existent  and  the  non- 
existent. The  aphorism,  "Seeing  Is  believing," 
dominates  his  thought;  and  the  na'ively  egoistic 
assumption  that  what  the  Universe  seems  to  be 
to  his  bodily  senses  that  It  is  in  itself,  and  that 
therefore  nothing  exists.  In  the  order  of  Nature, 
except  what  Is  perceptible  by  the  bodily  senses, 
becomes  the  cardinal  article  of  his  faith.  But  the 
consequences  of  this  materialistic  assumption  are 
repugnant  to  his  heart.  And  so,  in  response  to 
the  demands  of  his  heart,  his  mind  devises  a  sup- 
plementary theory  of  things, — the  conception  of 
a  world  above  Nature  In  which  the  higher  reali- 
ties of  which  his  bodily  senses  can  take  no  cogni- 
sance, may  find  an  asylum.  Foremost  among 
these  higher  realities  are  those  towards  which  his 
religious  instincts   direct  themselves, — supreme, 


236       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

or,  as  he  calls  it,  divine  goodness,  divine  wisdom, 
divine  power. 

Thus  instead  of  one  Universe  the  average  man 
must  needs  have  two, — Nature  and  the  Supernat- 
ural World ;  and  between  these  two  a  great  gulf 
is  fixed  in  his  thought,  a  gulf  of  nothingness 
which  makes  natural  intercourse  between  the  two 
worlds  impossible.  But,  as  always  happens  in  a 
dualism,  the  intervening  gulf  of  nothingness 
drains  into  itself  the  reality  of  both  worlds; 
draining  away  from  Nature  her  inwardness,  her 
spirituality,  and,  in  the  last  resort, her  life;  drain- 
ing away  from  the  world  above  Nature  its  sub- 
stance, its  actuality,  and  all  of  it  that  is  convin- 
cingly real. 

The  fatal  influence  of  this  dualistic  cosmology 
will  make  itself  felt  long  after  the  idea  of  the 
Supernatural  has  lost  its  hold  upon  human 
thought.  Meanwhile,  the  ascendency  of  the  idea 
is  fraught  with  serious  danger  to  the  spiritual  de- 
velopment of  mankind.  It  is  not  enough  that  a 
supernatural  world  should  be  evolved  by  thought 
in  response  to  the  demands  of  the  heart.  Inter- 
course with  that  world  must  somehow  or  other  be 
opened  up  and  carried  on.  And  as  natural  inter- 
course between  the  two  worlds  is  impossible, 
supernatural  Intercourse  must  take  Its  place.  The 
gulf  cannot  be  passed  by  man;  but  God,  who 
dwells  beyond  it,  can  pass  It  at  his  own  good 
pleasure  and  in  his  own  good  time.    Hence  comes 


WESTERN  THOUGHT  237 

the  general  Idea  of  supernatural  revelation,  with 
all  its  sub-Ideas, — the  idea  of  divinely  selected 
peoples,  of  divinely  commissioned  teachers,  of 
divinely  inspired  scriptures,  of  divinely  guided 
churches,  and  the  rest.  We  need  not  follow  the 
idea  into  all  these  details,  but  we  shall  do  well  to 
follow  it  into  some  of  its  inevitable  consequences. 
What  is  revealed  to  man  from  the  supernatural 
world,  by  whatever  means  the  intercourse  be- 
tween the  two  worlds  may  be  carried  on,  is  ob- 
viously ^'the  Truth."  As  such,  if  it  is  to  be  made 
available  for  man's  needs,  it  must  admit  of  being 
formulated  and  taught.  In  other  words,  the 
dogmatic*  standpoint  and  the  dogmatic  temper 
are  necessary  corollaries  to  the  general  idea  that 
the  truth  of  things  can  be  revealed  to  man  by  the 
Supernatural  God.  Between  dogmatism  and 
free-thought  there  is,  in  the  nature  of  things,  a 
truceless  war.  The  conception  of  truth  as  an  un- 
attainable ideal,  the  quest  of  which  is  "its  own 
exceeding  great  reward,"  is  wholly  incompatible 
with  the  dogmatic  standpoint.  The  exercise  of 
speculative  thought  is  indeed  permitted  by  dog- 
matism, but  under  conditions  which  make    the 

*I  mean  by  dogmatism,  not  the  uncompromising  ex> 
pression  of  opinion,  but  the  claim  to  have  formulated  and 
expounded  supernaturally  communicated  truth.  The  for- 
mulation of  opinion,  however  uncompromising  or  even  dis- 
courteous it  may  be,  does  not  constitute  dogmatism  in  this 
— the  theological — sense  of  the  word.  There  is  a  vital  dis- 
tinction, which  the  apologists  for  "dogma"  are  apt  to  ig- 
nore, between  speaking  for  oneself  and  speaking  in  the 
name  of  the  Supernatural  God. 


238       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

concession  a  mockery.  Not  only  must  Its  enter- 
prises be  carried  on  within  narrow  and  strictly 
defined  limits,  but  they  must  also  lead  It  to  pre- 
ordained conclusions.  This  means  that  "  high 
thinking,"  the  thought  which  makes  what  is  de- 
fined and  accepted  the  starting-point  of  Its  enter- 
prises, Is  not  merely  discountenanced  by  dog- 
matism, but  rigorously  repressed.  But  the  repres- 
sion (or  restriction)  of  speculative  thought 
means  the  repression  (or  restriction)  of  spiritual 
desire.  For  thought  both  Indicates  the  general 
direction  In  which  desire  is  to  operate,  and  pro- 
vides it  with  the  working  capital  for  its  bolder 
ventures.  It  follows  that,  when  the  working 
capital  which  thought  Is  allowed  to  provide  is 
strictly  limited  in  amount,  and  when  that  limited' 
amount  is  accepted  by  desire  as  entirely  adequate 
to  Its  needs,  desire  Itself  Is  bringing  Its  speculative 
operations  to  a  standstill.  In  other  words,  dog- 
matism limits  the  scope  of  desire  In  the  very  act 
of  limiting  the  sphere  of  thought;  and  so  far  as 
it  is  successful  In  imposing  those  limits,  It  tends 
to  arrest  the  growth  of  the  soul. 

These  are  general  conceptions.  Let  us  return 
to  the  history  of  Western  thought.  It  Is  to  the 
genius  of  one  small  nation  that  the  West  owes, 
for  good  or  for  evil,  its  spiritual  standpoint.  Je- 
hovah, the  God  of  Israel,  Is  accepted  as  the  Lord 
Paramount  of  the  Universe  by  the  greater  part 


WESTERN  THOUGHT  239 

of  the  Western  World,  those  who  are  in  rebel- 
lion against  his  authority  being  unable  to  find  any 
rival  claimant  to  his  throne.  Whatever  may  be 
one's  own  attitude  towards  the  ideas  which  Israel 
evolved  and  formulated,  one  cannot  but  admire 
the  strenuousness  and  force  of  character  which 
enabled  a  small,  remote,  and  politically  feeble  na- 
tion to  force  Its  conception  of  God  and  Man  and 
Nature  upon  the  thought  and  the  conscience  of 
the  Graeco-Roman  world.  But  admiration  of 
Israel's  character  and  achievements  must  not 
blind  us  to  the  fact  that  his  astonishing  success 
as  a  propagandist  was  due  to  his  weakness,  not 
less  than  to  his  strength.  The  genius  of  Israel  was 
essentially  practical.  In  his  seasons  of  spiritual 
expansion  it  became  poetical;  and  his  poetry, 
which  reflected  the  Intensity  as  well  as  the  nar- 
rowness of  his  nature,  was  (at  its  highest  level), 
in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  word,  sublime.  But  he 
easily  fell,  as  we  all  do,  below  the  level  of  poetic 
rapture;  and  when  he  began  to  fall,  he  dropped 
to  ignominious  depths.  For  he  had  no  philoso- 
phy. In  the  deeper  sense  of  the  word,  to  sustain 
him.  Singularly  destitute  of  "Ideas,"  he  was  in- 
capable of  effective  self-criticism  (though  abun- 
dantly capable  both  of  self-exaltation  and  self- 
depreciation)  ;  and  he  followed  his  quasi-com- 
mercial conception  of  religious  duty  into  the 
most  meticulous  details  of  legalism,  fully  believ- 
ing that  In  doing  so  he  was  working  the  will  of 


240       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

God.  For  Intellectual  meditation,  for  sustained 
and  concentrated  reflection,  for  the  depths  and 
the  subtleties  of  thought,  he  had  no  turn  what- 
ever. His  philosophy  was  that  of  the  average 
man,  and  his  triumph  has  been,  in  part  at  least, 
the  triumph  of  the  average  man's  ideas.  Ad- 
dressing himself  to  ordinary  people — the  people 
who  believe  that  the  visible  world  is  the  real 
world,  and  yet  are  unwilling  to  accept  the  logical 
consequences  of  that  belief— he  won  their  whole- 
hearted support  by  meeting  them  on  their  own 
Intellectual  level,  by  speaking  to  them  In  their 
own  language,  by  expounding  to  them  their  own 
theory  of  things.  His  explanation  of  the  Uni- 
verse, with  all  its  subsidiary  conceptions:  the 
conception  of  a  personal  and  supernatural  God, 
made  In  the  Image  of  Man ;  of  the  creation  of  the 
visible  world  by  the  fiat  of  God's  will;  of  the  dis- 
obedience of  Man  to  God's  commandments,  and 
his  consequent  fall  from  Innocence  and  bliss;  of 
the  selection  of  a  certain  people  as  the  depositary 
of  the  truths  which  God  chose  to  reveal  to  fallen 
Man;  of  the  formulation  of  God's  will  In  a  code 
of  law;  of  the  promise  of  God's  favour  to  those 
who  should  obey  that  law,  and  of  his  wrath  to 
those  who  should  disobey  It; — all  this,  as  far  as  It 
goes,  Is  just  such  an  explanation  as  the  average 
man.  If  his  curiosity  was  thoroughly  awakened, 
would,  in  his  attempt  to  account  for  the  more 
striking  facts  of  existence  and  at  the  same  time  to 


WESTERN  THOUGHT  241 

give  satisfaction  to  the  master  desires  of  his 
heart,  be  likely  to  evolve  for  himself.  What 
wonder  that  when,  through  the  magnetic  influ- 
ence of  Christ's  gracious  and  commanding  per- 
sonality and  through  the  self-sacrificing  devotion 
of  the  high-souled  Jews  who  transmitted  that  In- 
fluence to  the  Gentiles,  the  Jewish  scriptures  be- 
came known  far  and  wide,  the  Jewish  scheme  of 
things — crowned  and  completed  by  the  concep- 
tion of  Christ  as  the  mediator  between  God  and 
Man  and  the  redeemer  of  fallen  Humanity,  and 
so  made  available  for  all  believers,  irrespective  of 
race — should  have  been  accepted  as  an  authori- 
tative explanation  of  all  the  mysteries  of  exist- 
ence? 

It  Is  true  that,  along  with  his  own  philosophy, 
systematised  and  dramatised  for  him  by  Israel, 
the  average  man  received  some  fragments  of  the 
spiritual  teaching  of  Christ.  But  he  accepted 
that  teaching,  not  for  its  own  sake,  not  for  the 
sake  of  the  philosophy  that  was  behind  It — of 
that  he  knew  nothing,  and  had  it  been  revealed  to 
him  he  would  have  shrunk  from  It  with  suspicion 
and  alarm — but  for  the  sake  and  on  the  authority 
of  Christ.  His  own  interpretation  of  It  was,  as 
might  have  been  expected,  at  best  one-sided  and 
inadequate,  at  worst  literal  and  mechanical;  and 
so  disquieting  were  its  precepts,  owing  to  his  in- 
ability to  enter  into  their  spirit,  that  an  Instinctive 
regard  for  his  own  mental  balance  and  sanity  led 


242       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

him  In  nine  cases  out  of  ten  to  ignore  them  com- 
pletely. But  the  fact  remains  that,  In  a  sense  and 
In  a  manner,  he  did  receive  the  spiritual  teaching 
of  Christ,  and  that  from  then  till  now  the  ferment 
of  It  has  been  at  work  in  his  heart.  As,  how- 
ever, it  was  through  the  example  rather  than  the 
words  of  his  Master  that  the  spiritual  ideas  which 
have  been  the  leaven  of  his  inner  life  were  trans- 
mitted to  him,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  his 
reception  of  them  has  been  In  the  main  a  sub- 
conscious process,  and  that  they  have  not  ma- 
terially modified  the  movement  of  his  conscious 
thought.*  For  many  centuries,  Indeed,  his  ac- 
ceptance of  his  own  philosophy  was  complete. 
Those  who  offered  to  shake  his  faith  in  it — Gnos- 
tics, Arlans,  Alblgenses,and  the  like — fared  ill  at 
his  hands.  Through  his  Agent-General,  the 
Pope,  and  in  the  Councils  which  were  dominated 
by  his  "collective  wisdom,"  he  waged  relentless 
war  against  heretics  and  schismatics;  and  at  last 
things  came  to  such  a  pass  that  whoever  sent  even 
a  faint  ripple  of  doubt  over  the  stagnant  lagoon 
of  his  (so-called)  faith,  whoever  said  or  did  any- 
thing which  might  conceivably  give  him  the 
trouble  of  turning  over  in  his  orthodox  slum- 
ber, was  liable  to  be  burned  at  the  stake. 

This  triumph,   in  the   region   of  speculative 

*It  is  a  significant  fact  that  the  pious  Christian's  recogni- 
tion of  the  divinity  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  or,  in  other  words, 
of  the  immanence  of  God  in  his  own  life,  is,  as  a  rule,  a 
pure  formality. 


WESTERN  THOUGHT  243 

thought,  of  the  average  over  the  exceptional  man, 
was  a  misfortune  for  the  human  race.  For  it 
involved  the  suppression  of  high-thinking,  which 
is  in  its  very  essence  a  departure  from  the  com- 
monplace and  the  average;  and  the  suppression 
(of  high-thlnking  involves,  in  the  last  resort,  the 
suppression  of  spiritual  desire.  Not,  Indeed,  that 
it  is  possible  for  spiritual  desire  to  be  finally  sup- 
pressed. The  expansive  forces  of  Nature,  the 
expression  of  which  in  man's  inner  life  constitutes 
his  spiritual  desire,  may  be  dammed  back  for  cen- 
turies, but  sooner  or  later  they  will  find  a  new 
outlet  for  themselves.  This  is  what  happened  In 
the  West.  The  revival  of  classical  learning,  the 
invention  of  printing,  the  discoveries  of  distant 
lands,  and  other  influences  which  need  not  here 
be  considered,  all  working  In  unison  with  the  se- 
cret leaven  of  Christ's  spiritual  teaching,  com- 
bined to  generate  a  new  life  In  the  soul  of  man. 
Long  heralded  and  long  delayed,  the  day  of  lib- 
eration dawned  at  last.  In  the  age  (or  ages)  of 
the  Renascence  there  was  a  remarkable  lateral 
expansion  of  desire.  In  the  age  (or  ages) 
of  the  Reformation  there  was  an  equally  re- 
markable purification  and  elevation  of  desire. 
The  triumph  of  the  average  man  had  been  too 
complete,  and  Its  inevitable  Nemesis  had  duly 
come.  The  soul  of  man,  which  had  long  lain  in 
a  comatose  slumber  and  which  had  made  many 
abortive  efforts  to  arouse  Itself,  was  now  at  last 


244       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

alive  and  awake,  and  ready  for  new  speculative 
ventures.  Full  of  energy  and  enterprise,  It  turned 
to  thought  for  the  working  capital  that  It  needed, 
— for  the  help  and  guidance  which  large  Ideas 
alone  can  supply. 

But  there  was  no  response  to  Its  appeal. 

Before  the  Western  mind  could  begin  to  think, 
It  had  to  vindicate  its  right  to  think.  In  other 
words,  It  had  to  fight  for  freedom.  That  fight  Is 
still  In  progress,  and  the  end  of  it  is  not  yet  In 
sight.  Meanwhile,  the  speculative  achievements 
of  Western  thought  have  been.  In  the  nature  of 
things.  Inconsiderable.  Of  Its  triumphant  suc- 
c  .:s  In  the  sphere  of  physical  science  I  need  not 
speak.  Physical  science  is  not  philosophy.  Nor 
need  I  pause  to  consider  that  metaphysical  move- 
ment which  Is  supposed  to  have  been  initiated  by 
Descartes.  The  successive  idealistic  ventures 
which  have  been  one  of  the  distinguishing  fea- 
tures of  that  movement,  have  all  been  "apparent 
failures."  The  truth  Is  that  high-thinking  had 
been  so  long  and  so  rigorously  suppressed  that, 
even  In  the  efforts  which  the  Western  mind  has 
made  to  free  Itself  from  bondage  to  the  average 
man's  Ideas,  It  has  shown  at  every  turn  the  bane- 
ful effect  of  his  ascendency.  It  Is  a  mistake  to 
suppose  that  the  struggle  for  freedom  which  has 
been  In  progress  for  five  centiurles  has  been  whol- 
ly, or  even  In  large  measure,  conducted  by  men 
of  exceptional  mental  gifts.    It  was  pre-ordained, 


WESTERN  THOUGHT  245 

one  might  almost  say,  that  the  average  man 
should  himself  take  a  leading  part  in  it.  When- 
ever the  average  man  is  allowed,  as  he  has  been 
in  the  West,  to  control  the  larger  movements  of 
thought,  however  carefully  his  philosophy  may  be 
formulated  by  the  theologians  and  guarded  by 
the  Churches,  the  day  will  surely  come  when,  in 
his  individual  capacity,  he  will  rise  in  revolt 
against  himself  in  his  corporate  capacity,  and 
range  himself,  in  his  attempt  to  vindicate  the 
right  of  private  judgment,  by  the  side  of  the  ex- 
ceptional men  whom,  in  his  corporate  capacity, 
he  is  only  too  ready  to  burn.  But,  in  entering 
Into  this  anomalous  alliance,  he  illogically  claims, 
and  half-unconsciously  exercises,  the  right  to  im- 
pose the  fundamental  assumption  of  his  philoso- 
phy on  the  minds  of  his  allies.  And  though  he 
is  at  one  with  them  in  their  demand  for  freedom 
of  conscience,  he  leaves  them,  and  leaves  himself, 
but  little  room  for  the  exercise  of  that  sacred 
right.  This  is  one  among  many  reasons  why  the 
average  man's  fundamental  assumption — that 
the  physical  plane  Is  the  whole  of  Nature — still 
dominates  Western  thought.  In  the  deadly  shade 
of  that  assumption  his  spiritual  Ideas  wither  al- 
most as  soon  as  they  are  born.  In  his  own  phi- 
losophy materialism  is  still  modified  by  supernat- 
uralism.  But,  in  rejecting  the  old  theologies 
which  formulated  and  systematised  his  belief  in 
the    Supernatural,    and    the    old    organisations 


246       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

which  guarded  It  from  criticism,  he  has  exposed 
It  to  the  danger  of  being  undermined  by  specu- 
lative thought.  Indeed,  It  Is  no  exaggeration  to 
say  that  the  one  solid  achievement  of  critical 
thought  In  the  West,  In  recent  years,  has  been  to 
undermine  the  belief  In  the  Supernatural  and  to 
discredit  the  whole  theory  of  things  which  was 
built  on  that  Insecure  foundation.  The  Imme- 
diate consequences  of  this  achievement  have  been 
and  will  long  be  disastrous.  Take  away  from  the 
philosophy  of  the  average  man  the  conception  of 
the  Supernatural, — and  materialism,  pure  and 
simple,  remains.* 

*For  eighteen  centuries,  more  or  less,  the  belief  that  the 
God  of  the  Jews  is  the  God  of  the  Universe,  and  that  the 
Jewish  Scriptures  are  the  "Word  of  God,"  has  lain  like 
an  incubus  on  the  thought  and  conscience  of  the  West.  The 
time  has  come  for  criticism  to  say  plainly  that  until  this 
incubus  has  been  finally  exorcised,  the  higher  thought  of 
the  West  will  not  be  able  to  awake  from  its  long  and  trou- 
bled sleep.  The  Jewish  conception  of  a  God  who  is  at 
once  national  and  universal,  is  a  remarkable,  and,  as  far  as 
it  goes,  a  valuable  contribution  to  the  religious  develop- 
ment of  Humanity.  But,  standing  as  it  does  midway  be- 
tween a  frankly  national  and  a  genuinely  universal  con- 
ception of  God,  it  is  obviously  a  resting-place  for  religious 
thought  and  aspiration,  rather  than  an  abiding  home.  The 
Scriptures  which  record  the  sa3angs  and  doings  of  this 
hybrid  Deity,  hold  a  place  in  the  esteem  and  affection  of 
Christendom  which  makes  criticism  difficult  and  praise 
impertinent.  But  the  time  has  come  to  say  of  them  that 
they  have  all  the  defects  and  limitations  of  their  Deity,  and 
that  to  call  them,  in  all  seriousness,  the  "Word  of  God"  is 
to  emphasize  the  narrowness  and  shallowness  of  one's  own 
conception  of  the  Divine.  What  one  cannot  insist  on  too 
forcibly  is  that  the  cramping  and  warping  influence  of 
Jewish  ideas  and  ideals  makes  itself  felt  by  the  revolution- 
ary, quite  as  strongly  as  by  the  reactionary,  school  of 
thought.  The  "free-thinkers"  who  reject  supernaturalism 
are  with   few  exceptions,  as   narrow-minded,   as   unimagi- 


WESTERN  THOUGHT  247 

It  Is  sometimes  said  that  In  the  present  age 
there  Is  a  feud,  with  regard  to  "great  matters,'^ 
between  the  "heart"  and  the  "head."  The  feud 
is  also,  though  less  correctly,  spoken  of  as  one 
between  Religion  and  Science.  Strictly  speaking, 
the  parties  to  the  quarrel  are  two  rival  theories 
of  things — Supernaturalism,  which  seems,  for 
the  time  being,  to  satisfy  the  "heart,"  and  Ma- 
terialism, which  seems,  for  the  time  being,  to 
satisfy  the  "head."  To  Identify  religion  with 
supernaturalism  Is  as  unfair  as  to  hold  science 
responsible  for  materialism.  The  religious  in- 
stinct Invented  supernaturalism,  as  an  antidote 
to  the  materialism  of  popular  thought;  and 
the  spread  of  scientific  habits  of  thought  dis- 
credited supernaturalism,  and  so  rehabilitated 
materialism  as  the  philosophy  of  the  average  man 
in  his  seasons  of  "free-thought."  But  the  hy- 
pothesis of  a  world  above  Nature  is  as  little  of 
the  essence  of  religion,  as  is  the  materialistic 
degradation  of  Nature  of  the  essence  of  science. 

That  there  Is,  In  the  present  age,  a  feud  be- 
tween the  "head"  and  the  "heart" — betT\^een 
"reason"  and  "faith" — is,  I  think,  undeniable. 

native,  and  as  dogmatic  as  the  "orthodox"  whom  they  affect 
to  despise.  The  best  that  they  can  do  for  us,  when  we 
turn  to  them  for  help  and  guidance,  is  to  substitute  a  nega- 
tive for  a  positive  dogmatism,  secularism  for  superstition, 
disbelief  for  unwarranted  belief,  despair  for  illusive  hope. 
Meanwhile,  the  West,  with  its  old  ideals  discredited,  ^yith 
its  old  virtues  at  a  discount,  with  its  old  faith  slowly  dying, 
devotes  itself  with  feverish  energy  to  the  pursuit  of  riches 
and  pleasure. 


248       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

The  churches  and  sects  denounce  "rationalism" 
as  vehemently  as  the  Free-thinkers  and  Ag- 
nostics (to  give  them  the  titles  which  they 
have  appropriated,  but  to  which  they  have  no 
claim)  denounce  "superstition."  The  very  plat- 
form on  which  the  head  and  the  heart  meet 
in  their  controversy,  is  the  tacit  assumption 
that  their  respective  philosophies  are  the  only 
possible  solutions  of  the  problem  of  the  Uni- 
verse. "Quit  the  fold  of  the  Church,"  says 
the  votary  of  "faith,"  "and  you  will  sink 
deeper  and  deeper  into  the  quagmire  of  ma- 
terialism, till  you  end  by  denying  God,  deny- 
ing the  soul,  denying  the  life  beyond  the  grave." 
"Cease  to  believe  in  God,"  says  the  "Free-think- 
er," "cease  to  believe  in  the  soul,  cease  to  dream 
of  a  life  beyond  the  grave,  or  you  will  find  your- 
self committed  to  all  the  assumptions  of  super- 
naturalism,  and,  sinking  deeper  and  deeper  into 
the  quagmire  of  superstition,  you  will  end  by  sur- 
rendering your  conscience  to  the  casuist  and  your 
freedom  to  the  priest."  It  is  a  significant  fact 
that  in  France,  where  the  average  man  is  more 
logical  and  clear-headed  than  in  any  other  coun- 
try, there  are  (when  all  is  said  and  done)  two 
parties  and  two  only, — Catholics  and  "Free- 
thinkers." Between  these  two  there  is  a  deep- 
seated  and  far-reaching  feud.  It  might  almost  be 
said  that  every  Frenchman  is  bound  to  range 
himself  on  one  side  or  the  other  in  that  deadly 


WESTERN  THOUGHT  249 

quarrel,  bound  to  subscribe  to  all  the  positive 
dogmas  of  Catholic  theology  or,  failing  that,  to 
all  the  negative  dogmas  of  what  miscalls  itself 
"Free-thought," —  a  creed  which  centres  in  the 
dogmatic  denunciation  of  ''the  deplorable  super- 
stition of  a  life  after  death."  Between  ecclesias- 
tical supernaturalism  and  secularistic  materialism 
there  seems  to  be  no  middle  term.  But  if  in 
France  every  man  is  either  a  Catholic  or  a  "Free- 
thinker," in  other  countries,  where  men  are  less 
logical,  it  not  unfrequently  happens  that  the  same 
person  passes  and  re-passes  between  the  two  hos- 
tile camps.  Again  and  again  one  sees  the  young 
man  who  has  been  nurtured  in  the  ancient  faith, 
reject  supernaturalism  as  an  Irrational  hypothe- 
sis, and  go  forth,  exulting  in  his  freedom.  In  quest 
of  a  truer  and  deeper  philosophy;  and  sometimes 
one  sees  the  same  man,  weary  of  a  creed  which 
authoritatively  tells  him,  while  the  shadows  are 
lengthening  on  his  path,  that  death  is  the  end  of 
life,  creep  back  in  his  old  age  to  the  fold  which 
he  had  quitted  in  his  youth,  and  justify  himself 
for  his  second  apostacy  by  arguing  that,  as  an  In- 
terpreter of  the  deeper  mysteries  of  existence,  the 
heart  is,  in  all  probability,  more  to  be  trusted 
than  the  head. 

Assuming  that  there  is  a  feud  between  the 
head  and  the  heart,  let  us  ask  ourselves  how  the 
feud  has  originated,  what  it  indicates,  and  how 
it  Is  to  be  healed.     We  mean  by  the  "heart"  the 


250      THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

headquarters  of  desire, — by  the  "head,"  the  head- 
quarters of  thought.  The  function  of  the  head  Is 
to  supply  the  heart  with  the  working-capital  that 
it  needs  for  Its  speculativ^e  enterprises,  in  other 
words,  with  the  "Ideas"  that  It  needs  for  the  due 
evolution  of  its  spiritual  desires.  It  sometimes 
happens  that  the  heart  goes  to  the  head  for 
Ideas,  and  Is  sent  empty  away.  But  these 
are  exceptional  cases.  As  a  rule,  when  there  Is 
a  complete  dearth  of  Ideas,  the  reason  Is  that 
there  has  been  no  demand  for  them,  the  soul  hav- 
ing become  so  unenterprising  that  the  unexpended 
balance  of  its  original  capital  proves  to  be  more 
than  sufficient  for  Its  needs.  But  Nemesis  waits, 
as  we  have  seen,  on  this  ignoble  solvency.  Sooner 
or  later  the  soul  will  awake  from  Its  orthodox 
slumber,  and  make  Itself  ready  for  new  specula- 
tive ventures.  Then  there  will  be  an  Immense 
expansion  of  desire,  and  a  corresponding  need  for 
new  Ideas.  For  a  time,  indeed,  that  need  will  not 
be  acutely  felt.  A  sustained  attempt  will  be 
made  to  pour  the  new  wine  Into  the  old  bottles, 
to  finance  the  new  enterprises  with  the  old  capi- 
tal. But  after  a  time  the  inadequacy  of  the  old 
Ideas  will  be  realised;  and  the  heart  will  go  to 
the  head  for  the  new  Ideas  that  its  expanding  de- 
sires imperatively  demand.  But  the  head,  having 
had  no  call  made  upon  It,  will  have  long  since 
ceased  to  enlarge  its  own  capital;  and  when  the 
heart  goes  to  it,  it  must  either  confess  Itself  insol- 


WESTERN  THOUGHT  251 

vent,  or  try  to  dissuade  the  heart  from  commit- 
ting itself  to  enterprises  which  it  (the  head)  is 
unable  to  finance.  In  self-defence  it  will  take  the 
latter  course.  It  will  say  to  the  heart :  "These  en- 
terprises for  which  you  ask  financial  help  are  mad 
and  impossible,  and  will  end  in  your  utter  ruin. 
Abandon  them,  one  and  all,  and  limit  your  de- 
sires to  what  is  measurable  and  attainable.  For 
that  I  will  provide  you  with  the  limited  amount 
of  capital  that  you  will  need,  but  on  one  condi- 
tion,— that  I  am  allowed  to  become  a  partner  in 
your  business." 

How  will  the  heart  receive  this  advice?  The 
new  desires  for  which  it  needs  working  capital 
are  not  revolutionary  ventures,  but  natural  and 
necessary  developments  of  its  old  desires.  To 
tell  it  that  these  new  desires  are  mad  and  impos- 
sible enterprises  is  to  tell  it,  by  implication,  that 
the  whole  of  its  business  is  unsound.  Both  the 
head  and  the  heart  will  feel  instinctively  that  the 
former's  response  to  the  latter's  demand  for 
ideas  amounts  to  this.  Were  it  possible  for  the 
head  to  say,  in  response  to  the  heart's  appeal: 
"Your  business  has  contracted  and  otherwise  de- 
teriorated owing  to  your  having,  through  indo- 
lence and  timidity,  neglected  to  expand  it:  but 
the  business  itself — the  fundamental  desires 
which  you  seek  to  exploit — is  sound  enough;  all 
that  is  needed  is  that  you  should  enlarge  your 
capital  and  develop  your  business  in  new  direc- 


252       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

tlons  and  on  a  bolder  scale" : — were  It  possible 
for  this  stimulating  answer  to  be  given  to  the  ex- 
pectant heart,  the  inner  life  of  man  would  be 
quickened  into  new  activity,  and  a  new  season  of 
soul-growth  would  be  begun.  But  it  is  not  pos- 
sible. Were  the  head  to  tell  the  heart  that  what 
the  latter  needs,  above  all  things,  is  fresh  capital, 
It  would  thereby  make  open  confession  of  the 
emptiness  of  Its  own  coffers.  What  it  will  find  It- 
self driven  to  do  is  to  discountenance  the  enter- 
prises of  the  heart, — not  Its  new  ventures  only, 
but  the  spirit  of  enterprise  which  is  and  has  ever 
been  the  breath  of  its  life;  to  tell  the  heart  that 
spiritual  desire — the  desire  which  directs  itself  to- 
wards the  far-off  and  mysterious — is  In  the  na- 
ture of  things  a  vanity  and  a  delusion ;  in  fine,  to 
invite  It  to  wind  up  the  business  which  It  lives  to 
transact,  and  to  embark  on  a  new  career  which 
bears  the  same  relation  to  the  old  that  the  till  of  a 
village  grocer  bears  to  the  counting-house  of  a 
merchant  prince.  What  wmII  happen  when  the 
heart,  in  Its  hour  of  expansive  energy,  receives 
this  chilling  rebuff?  Who  shall  blame  it  If  It 
resolves  henceforth  to  forswear  its  alliance  with 
the  head;  if  it  abandons  its  dream  of  finding  new 
Ideas  to  match  the  new  desires  that  had  begun  to 
renew  Its  life;  If  It  recoils  from  the  new  desires, 
as  from  phantoms  which  are  luring  it  to  destruc- 
tion ;  if  It  goes  back  at  last  to  the  old  discredited 
ideas  and  the  old  devitalised  desires,  determined 


WESTERN  THOUGHT  253 

at  whatever  cost  to  patch  up  its  dwindling  busi- 
ness and  carry  it  on  as  best  it  may? 

That  I  may  make  my  meaning  clear,  let  me 
trace  in  outline  the  history  of  one  of  the  master 
desires  of  the  heart, — the  desire  for  immortality. 
I  select  this  desire  for  consideration  because,  of 
all  spiritual  desires,  it  is  at  once  the  most  popular 
and  the  most  profound;  and  I  call  it  a  spiritual 
desire  because  it  unquestionably  directs  itself  to- 
wards the  far-off  and  the  mysterious.  When  it 
was  still  in  its  infancy,  the  crude  conceptions  of 
supernaturalism  were  sufficient  for  its  needs. 
The  pious  Christian  was  content  to  believe  that 
on  a  certain  day  in  a  not  very  distant  future  his 
body,  which  he  found  it  difficult  to  distinguish 
from  his  real  self,  would  rise  again  from  the 
dead;  that  he  would  then  appear  before  the  judg- 
ment-seat of  Christ;  that  if  he  had  lived  well 
while  on  earth  he  would  be  rewarded  with  eter- 
nal happiness;  that  if  he  had  lived  ill  he  would 
be  punished  with  eternal  misery.  This  theory  of 
things  was  provided  by  the  head  in  response  to 
the  demands  of  the  heart;  but  when  once  the 
theory  had  been  accepted  and  formulated  by  the 
Christian  Church,  the  head  was  forbidden  to  criti- 
cise it,  forbidden  to  modify  it  except  in  unessen- 
tial details,  forbidden  even  to  think  about  it  ex- 
cept within  the  clearly  defined  limits  which  Cath- 
olic theology  had  marked  out.    The  consequence 


254       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

was  that  thought  (in  the  deeper  sense  of  the 
word)  got  out  of  touch  with  the  idea  of  survival, 
lost  all  interest  in  it,  held  entirely  aloof  from  it. 
For  a  time  the  desire  for  immortality  was  satis- 
fied with  the  doctrines  of  a  bodily  resurrection 
and  a  future  judgment;  but  satisfaction  is  the 
grave  of  desire;  and  as  the  heart,  like  the  head, 
was  forbidden  to  speculate  (in  its  own  way) 
about  the  destiny  of  the  departed  spirit,  it  too 
lost  interest  in  the  problem,  and  instead  of  mov- 
ing onward,  as  desire  should  always  do,  it  be- 
gan to  oscillate  between  two  ignoble  feelings, — 
callous  indifference  and  superstitious  fear.  When 
the  tyranny  of  dogmatism  was  relaxed,  and  some 
measure  of  freedom  was  restored  both  to  the 
head  and  to  the  heart,  the  former  began  to  criti- 
cise the  current  eschatology  and  to  turn  away 
from  it  as  irrational,  while  the  latter  began  to 
turn  away  from  it  as  Ignoble  and  inadequate. 

So  far,  so  good.  Had  it  then  been  possible 
for  the  head  to  supply  the  heart  with  larger  and 
deeper  conceptions  of  what  Is  vulgarly  called  *'the 
future  life,"  the  heart  would  have  begun  to  dis- 
cover new  depths  and  new  developments  In  Its  de- 
sire for  immortality;  and,  in  its  attempt  to  inter- 
pret these,  the  head  would  have  begun  to  discover 
new  depths  and  new  developments  in  Its  theory 
of  immortality;  and  in  this  way  man's  whole 
conception  of  Nature  would  have  been  expanded 
and  enriched.     But  i,ooo  years  of  forced  Inac- 


WESTERN  THOUGHT  255 

tion  had  atrophied  the  constructive  energies  of 
thought,  and  Its  critical  power  alone  remained. 
Even  the  critical  power  of  thought,  which  cannot 
be  dissociated  from  the  constructive,  had  suffered 
from  the  despotism  which  confined  it,  so  far  as 
any  freedom  was  allowed  It,  to  the  study  of  phys- 
ical phenomena,  and  forbade  it  to  meddle  with 
"spiritual  things."  For  criticism,  in  the  truer 
and  deeper  sense  of  the  word.  It  had  no  capacity. 
Its  growing  power  of  analytical  criticism  enabled 
it  to  undermine  the  foundations  of  supernatural- 
ism.  But  when  It  had  done  this  w-ork,  it  had  gone 
as  far  as  it  was  possible  for  It  to  go.  The  dream- 
land of  the  Supernatural  had  vanished,  and  "Na- 
ture" remained.  But  It  was  the  Nature  of  the 
average  man.  The  philosophy  of  the  average 
man,  with  its  central  assumption  that  the  outward 
and  visible  world  is  the  whole  of  Nature,  was 
still  In  the  ascendant ;  and  now  that  the  corrective 
influence  of  supernaturalism  had  been  withdrawn, 
the  latent  materialism  of  that  commonplace  phi- 
losophy began  to  resume  its  sway.  To  free  itself 
from  that  sway  was  beyond  the  power  of  thought. 
Incapable  of  constructive  criticism,  It  could  do 
nothing  but  bow  its  neck  to  the  yoke  of  the  very 
assumption  which  the  heart  had  Instinctively  re- 
jected as  Intolerable,  and  In  its  effort  to  free  itself 
from  which  it  had,  in  conjunction  with  the  head, 
devised  the  theory  of  the  Supernatural.  To  ex- 
pose the  unsoundness  of  that  provisional  theory 


256       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

was  (and  Is)  within  the  power  of  thought.  To 
devise  a  better  theory  was  (and  Is)  beyond  Its 
power  and,  for  the  time  being,  beyond  Its  aim. 

What  will  happen,  then,  when  the  heart,  no 
longer  able  to  rest  In  the  old  doctrines  of  Resur- 
rection and  Judgment,  of  Heaven  and  Plell,  but 
still  cherishing  the  desire  for  Immortality,  goes 
to  the  head  for  light  and  guidance?  It  will  be 
told  that  not  onlv  are  the  old  Ideas  about  Immor- 
tallty  false  and  hollow,  but  that  there  are  no 
Ideas  which  can  take  their  place.  It  will  be  told 
that  the  desire  for  Immortality  is  itself  a  delusion, 
— the  primary  delusion,  of  which  the  fables  of 
the  theologians  are  a  fitting  Interpretation, — and 
that  It  must  be  surrendered  If  the  heart  Is  to  find 
peace.  And  If  the  head  Is  asked  to  justify  these 
sweeping  negations.  It  will  give  reasons  for  them 
which  strike  at  the  root,  not  of  this  desire  only 
but  of  spiritual  desire  as  such.  That  It  may  the 
better  prove  how  entirely  It  is  under  the  control 
of  the  average  man.  It  will  appeal  to  his  primary 
assumption — that  the  visible  world  Is  the  only 
world — as  to  a  self-evident  truth;  and  if  the  au- 
thority of  Its  favourite  axiom  Is  questioned,  it  will 
support  It  with  many  arguments,  each  of  which 
is  a  mere  re-statement  of  the  axiom  under  a  more 
or  less  transparent  disguise ;  and,  having  thus  es- 
tablished its  authority.  It  will  draw  Inferences 
from  It  which  prove,  as  It  contends,  that  not  the 
idea  of  immortality  only,  but  the  idea  of  spiritual 


WESTERN  THOUGHT  257 

life,  the  Idea  of  spiritual  freedom,  the  whole 
"soul-theory"  (as  It  contemptuously  calls  it).  Is 
baseless  as  a  dream.  And  that  It  may  the  better 
prove  how  Incapable  It  Is  of  Interpreting  a  gen- 
uinely spiritual  desire,  such  as  the  longing  for 
Immortality,  It  will  take  upon  Itself  to  scold  the 
heart  for  cherishing  a  desire  which,  besides  being 
demonstrably  delusive,  Is  base,  selfish,  and  un- 
manly,— a  "lust  for  positive  happiness,"  which 
poisons  morality  at  Its  fountain-head. 

The  desire  for  Immortality  may  or  may  not  be 
delusive — demonstrably  delusive  It  certainly  Is 
not — but  It  Is  the  very  cant  of  pseudo-stoicism  to 
say  that  It  is  base  and  selfish.  For,  after  all, 
what  Is  the  desire  for  immortality?  Is  It  not  the 
desire,  which  man  shares  with  all  other  living 
things,  to  grow — to  continue  to  grow — to  ripen 
— to  move  towards  the  goal  of  natural  perfec- 
tion? 

"We  feel  that  we  are  greater  than  we  know." 

We  feel  that  the  scale  of  our  life  and  the  scope 
of  our  work  are  great  beyond  measure,  and  that 
it  would  be  as  reasonable  to  expect  an  oak  tree  to 
make  the  full  measure  of  Its  possible  growth  In  a 
single  season  as  for  the  soul  to  make  the  full 
measure  of  its  possible  growth  in  a  single  life.  It 
Is  the  soul's  belief  in  itself  which  makes  It  de- 
sire Immortality,  just  as  It  Is  the  oak  tree's  belief 
in  itself  which  makes  It  wait  expectantly  for  the 


258       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

warmth  and  moisture  of  another  spring;  but 
the  soul's  desire  for  continued  growth  is  en- 
tirely redeemed  from  selfishness  by  the  fact  that, 
in  the  higher  stages  of  its  development,  the  soul 
can  continue  to  grow  only  by  becoming  selfless. 
It  is  true  that  in  the  quasi-concrete  forms  which 
the  desire  takes,  in  the  pictures  which  man  makes 
for  himself  of  the  "future  life,"  he  shows  the 
limitations  of  his  undeveloped  nature, — the  ma- 
terialism of  his  unimaginative  mind,  the  selfish- 
ness of  his  unexpanded  heart.  But  the  desire  it- 
self is  unselfish,  with  all  the  unselfishness  of  a 
cosmic  force. 

Rebuffed  and  rebuked  by  the  head,  the  heart 
recoils  upon  Itself;  and  as  the  head  cannot  pro- 
vide it  with  the  Illuminating  ideas  about  immor- 
tality for  which  It  asks,  and  as  it  cannot  surrender 
a  desire  which  is  a  part  of  Its  very  life,  It  has  no 
choice  but  to  revert  to  the  old  Ideas,  to  accept 
these  as  of  Divine  authority,  and  to  confine  the 
desire  (which  had  struggled  In  vain  for  freedom 
and  expansion)  within  the  narrow  channel  which 
they  provide.  This  means  that,  owing  to  lack  of 
working  capital.  Its  speculative  enterprise  has 
failed;  and  this  again  means  that  thought,  which 
is  bound  by  Its  charter  to  supply  the  heart  with 
"ideas,"  is  unable  to  meet  Its  obligations,  and  Is 
therefore.  In  a  word,  bankrupt. 

Neither  the  head  nor  the  heart  is  to  be  blamed 
for  this  fiasco.    The  scale  of  the  catastrophe  Is  so 


WESTERN  THOUGHT  259 

large,  and  the  forces  which  have  combined  to 
produce  It  are  so  complex  and  have  been  so  long 
in  operation,  that  It  Is  Impossible  to  say  where  the 
responsibility  for  It  Is  to  be  laid.  Also,  It  may  be 
admitted  that  for  the  heart  to  be  at  open  feud 
with  the  head  Is  better  than  for  the  two  to  work 
together,  as  they  have  sometimes  done,  In  chains. 
To  that  extent  one  may  regard  the  quarrel  be- 
tween them  with  something  of  fatalistic  compla- 
cency. But  It  Is  a  mistake  to  say,  as  Is  sometimes 
said,  that  the  quarrel  Is  a  necessity  of  Nature, 
and  to  suggest  that  there  are  two  kinds  of  truth 
— truth  for  the  head  and  truth  for  the  heart — 
and  that  these  have  nothing  In  common.  Truth, 
like  Nature,  Is  In  the  last  resort  one  and  Indivis- 
ible. So  Is  the  soul.  The  division  of  the  soul  Into 
the  head  and  the  heart  may  be  a  necessity  of 
thought,  so  far  as  thought  comes  under  the  con- 
trol of  its  Instrument,  language;  but  It  Is  not  a 
necessity  of  Nature.  If  the  distinction  between 
the  two  is  to  be  maintained.  It  must  be  on  the  un- 
derstanding that  one  of  the  most  vital  functions 
of  each  Is  to  co-operate  with  the  other,  and  that 
neither  can  do  Its  own  special  work  effectively  ex- 
cept in  alliance  with  the  other. 

The  heart  Is  like  a  woman.  Its  Intuitions  are 
sound,  but  its  attempts  to  justify  them  are  falla- 
cious and  inconclusive.  "Le  coeur,"  says  Pascal, 
"a  ses  raisons  que  la  raison  ne  connait  pas:  on  le 
salt  en  mllle  choses."    This  Is  quite  true;  but  the 


26o       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

heart,  left  to  Itself,  will  not  only  fall  to  discover 
Its  hidden  reasons,  but  will  Insist  on  giving  other 
reasons — quite  wrong  reasons — for  Its  funda- 
mentally right  conclusions.  For  If  the  heart  takes 
upon  Itself  to  interpret  some  strong  and  true  de- 
sire which  possesses  It,  the  chances  are  that  It  will 
fall  a  victim,  In  its  search  for  an  explanation,  to 
the  first  commonplace  theory  that  comes  in  its 
way,  or,  failing  this,  will  revert  to  some  old 
worn-out  theory  which  In  Its  own  secret  recesses 
it  has  already  discarded;  with  the  result,  in  either 
case,  that  the  evolution  of  the  desire  will  be  ar- 
rested, and  its  pent-up  energies  put  to  some  baser 
use.  In  other  words,  the  right  conclusions  of  the 
heart,  being  obscured  by  wrong  reasons,  will  re- 
cede into  the  background;  and  the  heart  will  end 
by  substituting  for  these  its  own  misinterpreta- 
tions of  them, — misinterpretations  which  are 
wholly  due  to  its  perverse  attempt  to  understand 
and  explain  what  it  sees  and  feels. 

It  is  true  that  in  the  medium  of  poetry — 
which  never  argues,  never  apologises,  never  ex- 
plains itself — the  conclusions  which  the  heart 
reaches  by  the  divination  of  instinctive  desire, 
may  find  a  safe  retreat.  But  to  sustain  life  in 
that  fluid  medium,  in  which  no  problem  is  ever 
solved  but  all  reasons  and  all  conclusions  are 
held  in  solution,  Is  to  the  full  as  difficult  as  to 
breathe  the  rarefied  air  of  abstract  thought.  Rea- 
sons for  its  Intuitive  conclusions,  Ideas  to  justify 


WESTERN  THOUGHT  261 

and  direct  its  spiritual  desires,  the  heart  must 
have :  but  to  discover  those  reasons,  even  If  they 
be  locked  up  In  the  heart  Itself,  to  discover  the 
meaning,  the  function,  and  the  purpose  of  the 
heart's  desire  Is,  after  all,  the  business  of 
thought;  and  the  home  of  thought  Is  what  we 
call  the  head. 

Here  we  come  to  a  paradox  from  which  there 
seems  to  be  no  escape.  If  we  ask  In  what  court 
the  case  between  the  head  and  the  heart  Is  to  be 
tried,  we  can  but  answer, — In  the  court  of  reason, 
the  court  which  Is  presided  over  by  the  head. 
This  shows  how  fundamentally  fallacious — how 
unreal  and  unnatural — Is  the  dispute  In  question. 
When  the  heart  takes  upon  Itself  to  anticipate  or 
reverse  the  ruling  of  the  head.  It  violently  usurps 
the  function  of  the  latter,  and  gives  a  verdict  In 
Its  own  favour  In  a  court  whose  authority  It  has 
refused  to  recognise.  The  heart  should  go  Into 
the  court  of  reason,  not  as  a  suitor  against  the 
head — that  feud  Is,  I  repeat,  fundamentally  fal- 
lacious— still  less  as  a  judge,  but  as  a  witness  who 
Is  deeply  Interested  in  a  case  which  Is  ever  on 
trial,  and  whose  evidence  deserves  to  be  received 
and  weighed.  When  the  head  refuses  to  accept 
the  depositions  of  the  heart,  and  then  makes  light 
of  the  heart's  protest,  it  is,  in  its  judicial  capacity, 
deliberately  Ignoring  evidence  which  bears  direct- 
ly on  the  matter  In  dispute.  In  thus  ceasing  to  be 
Impartial,  It  abdicates  Its  judicial  functions,  and 


262       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

takes  a  side  in  the  very  case  which  It  has  under- 
taken to  try.  This  Is  equivalent  to  closing  Its 
court;  and  when  the  court  of  reason  Is  closed,  a 
state  of  chaos  ensues,  In  which  there  Is  not  even 
the  semblance  of  order,  until  might  becomes  right 
and  cuts  the  knots  which  cannot  otherwise  be 
loosed. 

In  the  West,  then,  we  have  the  strange  spectacle 
of  the  head,  which  ought  to  be  judicial  and  im- 
partial, playing  in  its  own  court  the  role  of  a  par- 
tisan and  an  advocate;  while  the  heart,  w^hlch  is 
and  ought  to  be  an  interested  witness,  finding  that 
the  Presiding  Judge  refuses  to  accept  its  evidence, 
takes  forcible  possession  of  the  judicial  bench  and 
gives  judgment  on  the  case  in  dispute,  using  ar- 
guments the  Insufficiency  of  which  It  had  fully 
recognised  in  the  very  act  of  entering  the  court. 
For  it  is  this,  and  nothing  less  than  this,  which 
happens  when  reason  gives  judgment  against 
"faith,"  having  from  the  outset  refused  to  listen 
to  Its  evidence;  and  when  "faith,"  In  revenge, 
claims,  on  rational  grounds,  the  right  to  reverse 
the  rulings  of  reason. 

The  feud  between  the  head  and  the  heart  Is  at 
once  an  abiding  proof  of  the  ascendency  of  dual- 
ism in  Western  thought,  and  a  practical  example 
of  the  working  of  that  fatal  fallacy.  Spirit  or 
matter,  life  or  machinery,  inward  or  outward, 
faith  or  reason,  the  heart  or  the  head, — again  and 
again  we  are  invited  to  make  our  choice  between 


WESTERN  THOUGHT  263 

what  are  supposed  to  be  mutually  exclusive  al- 
ternatives, though  they  are  really  aspects — at 
once  antithetical  and  correlative — of  the  same 
fundamental  reality.  In  the  order  of  Nature 
there  Is  no  abiding  feud  between  the  head  and 
the  heart.  When  we  say  that  there  Is  such  a  feud, 
what  we  mean  Is  that  for  the  time  being  the  head 
and  the  heart — thought  and  desire — are  unable 
to  co-operate,  the  result  of  this  being  that  neither 
is  fulfilling  Its  true  function,  and  that  the  whole 
machinery  of  the  Inner  life  Is  deranged.  The 
readiness  of  the  Western  mind  to  accept  this  state 
of  things  as  normal,  shows  how  deep-seated  is  the 
evil  and  how  urgent  Is  the  need  for  a  remedy.  It 
is  also  equivalent  to  an  admission  that  the  title  of 
this  chapter  is  justified,  and  that  Western 
thought  Is  no  longer  solvent.  When  thought  is 
solvent,  when  It  is  able  to  supply  the  Ideas  that 
desire  needs,  not  for  Its  Ignoble  satisfaction  but 
for  Its  expansion  and  development,  the  head  and 
the  heart  cease  to  be  enemies,  and  become  what 
Nature  intends  them  to  be, — fellow-workers  and 
friends. 


Chapter  IX 

LIGHT  FROM  THE  EAST 

UNABLE  to  meet  its  obligations,  un- 
able to  supply  the  soul  with  the 
ideas  that  it  needs  for  the  due  in- 
terpretation and  evolution  of  its 
desires,  Western  thought  can  save 
itself  from  hopeless  insolvency  only  by  borrow- 
ing ideas  from  some  other  source.  If  it  will  con- 
descend to  do  this,  and  if,  having  enriched  its 
treasury  with  these  new  ideas,  it  will  put  them 
to  a  profitable  use,  by  bringing  them  into  har- 
mony with  what  is  true  and  of  lasting  value  in  its 
own  theory  of  things,  it  will  not  only  extricate 
itself  from  its  embarrassments,  but  will  be  able  in 
due  course  to  pay  back  its  debt  with  more  than 
compound  interest. 

But  the  ideas  that  are  borrowed  must  be  those 
which  the  soul  really  needs.  Now  the  soul  needs, 
above  all  things,  to  be  allowed  to  believe  in  it- 
self. Belief  in  oneself  is  the  supreme  motive 
force  in  Nature,  the  power  which  is  behind  every 
desire,   every  enterprise,   every   effort  to   grow, 

every  "instinct  to  live."    What  we  call  the  feud 

264 


LIGHT  FROM  THE  EAST       265 

between  the  heart  and  the  head  Is  really  the  soul's 
Indignant  protest,  on  the  plane  of  Instinct  and  de- 
sire, against  a  theory  which  satisfies  It,  for  the 
time  being,  on  the  plane  of  conscious  thought, — 
the  theory  that  the  material  world  Is  the  whole 
world,  that  all  phenomena,  up  to  and  Including 
the  spiritual  life  of  man,  admit  of  being  stated 
and  explained  in  terms  of  physical  force  and 
physical  law,  and  that  therefore  the  soul  it- 
self is  not  a  reality  but  an  empty  name.  In 
other  words,  the  heart's  revolt  against  the 
head  is  the  soul's  protest  against  Its  own  dis- 
paragement of  Itself.  The  first,  and  In  a  sense 
the  last,  desire  of  the  soul  is  to  be  allowed  to  be- 
lieve In  itself;  for  all  faith,  all  hope,  all  joy,  all 
that  makes  life  worth  living,  Is  present  in  embryo 
in  that  one  belief. 

The  soul,  then,  must  be  allowed  to  believe  in 
itself;  and  if  this.  Its  fundamental  act  of  faith,  Is 
to  be  really  effective,  If  it  is  to  give  the  soul  the 
stimulus  and  the  guidance  that  it  needs,  if  it  is  to 
make  an  end  of  the  intestine  strife  that  tears  the 
soul  asunder,  It  must  be  free  from  any  suspicion 
of  doubt.  This  means  that  no  attempt  should  be 
made  to  prove  the  reality  of  the  soul.  For  if  Its 
reality  were  provable,  It  would  obviously  not  be 
final  or  complete.  Proof  implies  the  unprovable. 
To  prove  reality  is  to  build,  in  the  last  resort,  on 
the  rock  of  what  is  unprovably  real.  How  do  / 
know,  for  example,  that  the  outward  and  visible 


266      THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

world  is  real,  In  any  sense  or  degree?  Because 
my  senses  and  my  reason  assure  me  (provision- 
ally and  within  limits)  of  Its  reality.  But  what 
is  the  value  of  this  assurance  If  I,  whose  reality 
is  unprovable,  am  other  than  real?  And  because 
my  reality  is  unprovable,  It  stands  to  reason  that, 
just  so  far  as  the  reality  of  the  outward  world  Is 
provable,  It  Is  to  that  extent  provisional  and  in- 
complete. It  Is  my  secret  doubt  as  to  the  in- 
trinsic reality  of  the  outward  world,  which  makes 
me  attempt  to  prove  It ;  and  when  the  process  of 
proof  has  reached  its  conclusion.  Its  very  conclu- 
siveness becomes  the  measure  of  Its  failure;  for 
It  is  only  by  postulating  a  higher  and  more  In- 
trinsic reality  (in  myself)  that  I  am  able  to  prove 
that  the  outward  world  is  real  in  any  sense  or  de- 
gree. For  most  men,  Indeed,  the  proof  of  the 
reality  of  the  outward  world  is  a  process  which 
gives  satisfaction  long  before  it  has  reached  Its 
final  term, — In  other  words,  long  before  the  ap- 
peal to  the  soul's  guarantee  has  become  necessary. 
From  this  we  may  Infer,  If  we  please,  that  the 
average  man's  Instinctive  and  sub-conscious  belief 
In  the  solvency  of  the  guarantor  Is  complete, 
though  he  Is  incapable  of  the  sustained  effort  of 
thought  which  might  enable  him  to  realise  the 
significance  of  this  belief,  or  even  to  become  con- 
scious of  Its  existence.  But  what  distinguishes 
the  soul  from  all  other  objects  of  speculative 
thought,  is  that  any  attempt  which  may  be  made 


LIGHT  FROM  THE  EAST       267 

to  prove  Its  reality  Is,  In  the  nature  of  things, 
foredoomed  to  miscarry  at  the  very  outset.  This 
fact  Is  deeply  significant;  but  It  is  on  its  vital 
rather  than  its  metaphysical  significance  that  I 
wish  to  dwell.  Belief  In  Its  own  reality  Is  the 
very  root  of  the  soul's  life :  to  prove  or  attempt  to 
prove  Its  reality  is  to  undermine  and  otherwise 
weaken  Its  roothold ;  and  to  weaken  its  roothold 
is  to  retard  the  process  of  Its  growth. 

But  to  allow  the  soul  to  believe  In  Itself  Is  to 
make  faith,  instead  of  reason,  the  basis  of  one's 
philosophy  of  life.     The  answer  to  this  possible 
protest  Is  that  the  highest  function  of  reason  (as 
the  word  Is  understood  by  those  who  oppose  It 
to  faith)  Is  to  prove;  and  that.  Inasmuch  as  proof 
Implies  the  unprovable,  the  philosophy  that  Is 
based  on  reason  hangs  in  mid-air  Instead  of  rest- 
ing on  the  solid  earth.    This  means  that  no  phi- 
losophy is  or  can  be  based  on  reason,  and  that 
every  philosophy,  including  materialism  itself,  is 
based  on  an  act  of  faith.     But  as  every  act  of 
faith  resolves  itself  into  faith  in  the  source  of 
all  faith,  the  soul  (even  the  materialist's  belief 
in  the  Intrinsic  reality  of  the  outward  world  be- 
ing resolvable.  In  the  last  resort.  Into  belief  in 
his  own  self  as  the  guarantor  of  its  reality).  It 
seems  to  follow  that  the  soul's  belief  in  Itself  is 
the    only   belief   which    is    self-sanctioned,    and 
therefore  the  only  philosophical  postulate  which 
allows  the  thinker  to  proceed  at  once  on  his  way. 


268       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

If  the  soul  Is  to  believe  in  Itself,  It  must  break 
away,  finally  and  completely,  from  Western 
standards  of  reality,  or  rather — for  the  Western 
mind  does  not  think  In  the  category  of  the  real 
and  the  unreal"^ — from  Western  criteria  of  exist- 
ence. While  It  is  engaged  in  freeing  Itself  from 
these  fetters.  Its  conception  of  Nature  will  under- 
go a  profound  and  far-reaching  change.  Vast 
possibilities  will  begin  to  dawn  upon  its  vision. 
No  longer  bound  by  the  crude  assumption  that 
the  palpable  is  the  real  and  the  Impalpable  the 
non-existent,  it  will  begin  to  use  its  long-pinioned 
wings;  and  as  It  ascends  from  height  to  height, 
and  discovers  horizon  beyond  horizon,  it  will  be- 
gin to  suspect  that,  after  all,  the  normal  limits  of 
human  vision  may  not  be  the  limits  of  the  Uni- 
verse. It  will  begin  to  wonder  whether  there 
may  not,  after  all,  be  other  worlds  than  that 
which  the  bodily  senses  reveal  to  us ;  other  planes 
of  being  than  the  physical;  other  senses  in  man 
than  those  which  he  shares  with  the  lower  ani- 
mals; other  forces  than  those  of  material  Nature. 
In  the  light  of  this  dawning  conception,  the  pos- 
tulate of  a  supernatural  order  of  things,  which 
has  done  so  much  to  narrow  and  debase  man's 
conception  of  Nature,  will  become  finally  dis- 
credited by  being  justified  and  explained.     The 

*Its  favourite  category  is  a  hybrid  one, — that  of  the  real 
and  the  non-existent.  But  by  the  real  it  obviously  means 
the  existent.  The  idea  that  there  are  degrees  of  reahty  lies 
beyond  the  horizon  of  its  thought. 


LIGHT  FROM  THE  EAST       269 

idea  of  the  Supernatural  cannot  be  wholly  Il- 
lusory. However  erroneous,  however  mischie- 
vous may  be  Its  mode  of  expressing  itself, we  must 
needs  believe  that  at  the  bottom  of  an  Idea  which 
has  ruled  the  lives  and  swayed  the  hearts  of  men 
in  many  lands  and  many  ages,  there  is  a  real  ex- 
perience and  a  real  desire.  The  supernatural 
world  Is  the  impalpable  side  of  Nature,  including 
all  that  is  "Inward  and  spiritual,"  expressed  in  a 
semi-materialistic  notation.  It  follows  that,  when 
the  soul  Is  allowed  to  believe  In  Itself,  the  super- 
natural world  will  be  re-absorbed  Into  Nature  by 
a  quasi-spontaneous  process,  for  the  Inward  side 
of  Nature  will  then  be  seen  to  be  the  real  side, — 
the  substance  of  which  the  outward  world  Is  the 
shadow,  the  vital  essence  of  which  the  outward 
world  Is  the  expression  and  the  form.  Nor  is  it 
only  the  soul's  conception  of  Nature  which  will 
expand  indefinitely  when  the  conventional  cri- 
terion of  existence  becomes  discredited.  It  Is 
also  the  soul's  conception  of  itself.  Allow  the 
soul  to  believe  In  itself,  and  it  will  try  to  dis- 
cover what  its  self  really  Is.  This  means  that  it 
will  wander  far  and  wide,  wander  to  the  utter- 
most ends  of  the  world,  In  quest  of  Its  own  bound- 
aries; and  as  these  will  never  be  discovered,  it 
will  not  rest  till  it  has  absorbed  all  things  into  it- 
self. In  other  words,  it  will  not  rest  till  it  has 
spiritualised  Nature, — spiritualised  her  so  com- 
pletely that  the  very  things  which  it  once  regard- 


270       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

ed  as  the  only  substantial  realities  will  begin  to 
pass  before  It  as  moving  shadows,  and  the  ma- 
terial world,  which  It  once  regarded  as  the  Alpha 
and  Omega  of  Nature,  will  begin  to  melt  Into  a 
dream. 

Two  things,  then,  will  happen  when  the  soul 
has  learned  to  believe  In  Itself.  Its  conception  of 
Nature,  freed  from  the  limits  which  the  popular 
criterion  of  existence  Imposed  upon  It,  will  be 
raised  to  an  Infinite  power.  So  will  Its  concep- 
tion of  itself.  And  these  two  parallel  conceptions, 
meeting  at  last  "at  infinity,''  w^ill  become  one. 

Thus  the  first  Idea  that  the  soul  needs,  If  It  Is 
to  be  restored  to  a  state  of  spiritual  solvency — 
the  Idea  that  the  soul  Itself  Is  real — will  give 
an  Immense  stimulus  to  Its  flagging  vitality,  will 
rekindle  the  flame  and  widen  beyond  measure  the 
range  of  its  desire,  will  revive  its  dormant  spirit 
of  enterprise,  will  dispose  It  for  new  and  dar- 
ing adventures.  But  if  these  adventures  are  to 
be  properly  equipped  and  directed,  further  ideas 
will  be  needed;  and  these,  too,  must  be  provided 
by  thought.  The  general  idea  of  the  soul's  In- 
trinsic reality  must  be  supplemented  by  specula- 
tive Ideas  of  large  Import, — ideas  as  to  the  law  of 
the  soul's  life,  as  to  Its  Inward  standard  of  reality, 
as  to  Its  origin  and  Its  destiny,  as  to  the  relation 
between  its  individual  and  Its  universal  self.  In 
evolving  these  ideas,  thought  will  half  lead  and 
half  follow  desire,  and  will  thus  both  guide  and 


LIGHT  FROM  THE  EAST       271 

stimulate  it.  But  If  the  ideas  are  to  be  effective, 
they  must  remain  ideas,  and  not  be  allowed  to 
degenerate  Into  formulas.  To  go  far  Into  detail, 
to  map  out  a  complete  chart  for  the  soul  on  the 
eve  of  Its  voyage  of  discovery,  would  stultify  Its 
spirit  of  enterprise;  and  to  stultify  Its  spirit  of 
enterprise  Is  to  damp  down  the  very  flame  of  Its 
life.  If  the  chart  which  thought  provides  Is  both 
complete  and  correct  In  all  Its  details.  It  must 
needs  be  that  the  far-off  world  of  mystery  which 
draws  to  Itself  the  soul's  desires  has  already  been 
fully  explored  and  surveyed,  and  that  there  Is 
nothing  left  In  It  to  discover.  It  Is  by  desire,  even 
more  than  by  thought,  that  the  blighting  influence 
of  dogmatism  makes  Itself  felt;  and  desire  is  the 
soul's  instinctive  effort  to  grow.  The  very  basis 
of  dogmatism  Is  the  false  assumption  that  ulti- 
mate truth  is  communicable  from  without — as 
"theological  Information" — instead  of  being  the 
inmost  life  of  the  soul,  a  life  which  the  soul  must 
win — or  rather,  evolve — in  and  for  Itself.  When 
the  soul  realises  that  It  Is  real — and.  If  real  at  all, 
then  supremely  real — It  will  also  realise  that 
truth,  which  is  the  subjective  counterpart  of  re- 
ality, is  Intimately  Its  own ;  and  It  will  instinctive- 
ly reject  all  teaching  which  does,  or  pretends  to 
do,  for  it  what  It  ought  to  do  and  must  do  for  it- 
itself.  Thus  the  primary  Idea  that  the  soul  is 
real  will  automatically  protect  the  soul  from  the 
cramping  and  warping  pressure  of  dogmatism, 


272       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

and,  while  disposing  it  to  welcome  all  sub- 
ideas  which  give  it  stimulus  and  guidance,  will 
strengthen  it  to  reject  the  teaching  that  Is  merely 
formal,  and  that  does  not  reveal  to  It  what  Is  and 
has  ever  been  its  own. 

This  leads  me  to  say  again  that,  whatever 
spiritual  ideas  the  thought  of  the  West  may  bor- 
row from  whatever  quarter,  It  must  be  able  to 
assimilate  these,  if  they  are  to  rescue  it  from  its 
present  state  of  insolvency,  and  make  them  Its 
own.  I  mean  by  this,  first,  that  it  must  learn  at 
last  to  recognise  them  as  belonging  to  that  inner 
life  of  the  soul  which  It  Is  the  function  of  thought 
to  interpret ;  and,  next,  that  as  they  come  to  It — 
nominally  from  without,  but  really  from  within — 
It  must  meet  them  along  Its  own  line  of  approach, 
and  give  them  the  particular  expression  which  Is 
In  keeping  with  Its  own  criticism  of  life.  For  just 
as  the  Individual  soul.  In  the  course  of  Its  develop- 
ment, should  prove  its  individuality  by  unlversal- 
Islng  Itself  In  Its  own  particular  way,  so  If  the  soul 
of  the  West  Is  to  make  the  Ideas  which  It  borrows 
really  productive.  It  must  transform  them  by 
processes  of  its  own  till  it  has  made  them  avail- 
able, first  for  the  special  needs  of  the  West,  and 
then  for  the  more  general  needs  of  Humanity.  In 
this,  and  in  no  other  way,  will  it  be  able  to  pay 
them  back  In  due  season,  enriched  and  expanded 
by  the  use  that  It  has  made  of  them. 

Four  things,  then,  are  needed  if  the  bankruptcy 


LIGHT  FROM  THE  EAST       273 

of  Western  thought  Is  to  come  to  an  end.  In  the 
first  place,  the  Idea  that  the  soul  Is  ultimately 
real — an  Idea  which  the  heart  Imperatively  needs, 
but  which  the  head  Is  unable  to  supply — must  be 
borrowed  from  some  other  source.  In  the  second 
place,  the  Idea  must  be  accepted  on  Its  own  evi- 
dence, and  therefore  without  any  shadow  of  re- 
serve or  doubt.  This  means  that  the  source  from 
which  the  Idea  Is  borrowed  must  be  one 
in  which,  having  always  been  regarded  as 
demonstrably  Indemonstrable,  it  has  the  force 
and  authority  of  an  axiom, — not  of  a  mere 
assumption,  still  less  of  a  logical  con- 
clusion. In  the  third  place,  with  this  mas- 
ter idea  the  soul  must  borrow  the  subsidiary 
ideas  by  which  it  has  been  interpreted  and  other- 
wise supported  In  the  land  of  Its  origin;  but  it 
must  take  care  that  these  subsidiary  ideas,  while 
giving  it  stimulus  and  guidance,  do  not  In  any 
way  cramp  or  deaden  Its  life,  or  impede  the  free 
play  of  its  thought  and  Its  desire.  In  the  fourth 
place.  It  must  make  the  Ideas  that  It  borrows  Its 
very  own;  for  until  It  has  done  this  It  will  not 
be  able  to  trade  with  them  to  advantage; 
and  It  is  only  by  trading  with  them  to  advan- 
tage that  it  can  hope  to  pay  them  back,  with 
the  generous  Interest  which  is  due  for  so  timely 
a  loan. 

In  asking  the  West  to  adopt  this  heroic  rem- 


274      THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

edy,  I  can  appeal  to  a  precedent  which  Christen- 
dom at  least  will  regard  as  authoritative, — to  the 
example  of  Christ.  Nearly  2,000  years  ago, 
when  the  ideals  of  Paganism  had  exhausted  their 
influence,  and  when,  as  a  consequence  of  this,  the 
soul  of  the  West  was  sinking  deep  into  the  mire 
of  materialism — a  materialism  of  thought  as  well 
as  of  desire — Christ  renewed  its  failing  strength, 
and  drew  it  back  to  firm  ground,  by  borrowing 
from  the  Far  East  the  master  idea  of  the  soul's 
intrinsic  reality  and  the  derivative  ideas  that  re- 
volve round  this  central  orb,  and  by  making  these 
his  own.  As  regards  the  source  to  which  he 
went,  the  ideas  that  he  borrowed,  and  the  use  that 
he  made  of  them,  we  who  revere  Christ  as  our 
Lord  and  Master,  shall  do  well  to  follow  his 
lead. 

To  the  pious  Christian,  who  believes  that 
Christ  brought  his  ideas — or  shall  I  say,  his  store 
of  ''theological  information"  ? — down  to  earth 
from  the  supernatural  Heaven,  the  suggestion 
that  he  borrowed  ideas  from  India,  or  any  other 
terrestrial  land,  may  possibly  seem  profane.  Yet 
Theology  itself  admits,  or  rather  insists,  that 
Christ  was  (and  is)  "very  man"  as  well  as  "very 
God;"  and  if  he  was  "very  man,"  if  he  was  open 
to  all  human  influences,  we  may  surely  take  for 
granted  that  his  pure  and  exalted  nature  was  pe- 
culiarly sensitive  to  the  spiritual  ideas  of  his  age. 
That  Christ  had  come  under  the  influence  of  the 


LIGHT  FROM  THE  EAST       275 

spiritual  ideas  of  the  Far  East  is  a  hypothesis 
which  explains  many  things,  and  for  which  there- 
fore there  are  many  things  to  be  said.  To  at- 
tempt to  prove  in  detail  the  indebtedness  of  the 
*'Gospel"  to  the  "Ancient  Wisdom"  would  carry 
me  far  beyond  the  limits  which  the  aim  of  this 
work  has  imposed  upon  me.  But  I  would  ask 
anyone  who  can  approach  the  question  with  a 
genuinely  open  mind  to  make  the  following 
simple  experiment.  Let  him  first  saturate  him- 
self with  the  spiritual  thought  of  India, — with 
the  speculative  philosophy,  half  metaphysical, 
half  poetical,  of  the  Upanishads,  and  with  the 
ethical  philosophy  of  Buddha.  Let  him  then 
study  the  sayings  of  Christ,  making  due  allow- 
ance for  the  distorting  medium  (of  Jewish 
prejudice  and  Messianic  expectation)  through 
which  his  teaching  has  been  transmitted  to 
us.  He  will  probably  end  by  convincing  him- 
self, as  I  have  done,  that  the  spiritual  stand- 
points of  the  Sages  of  the  Upanishads,  of 
Buddha,  and  of  Christ  were,  in  the  very  last 
resort,  identical. 

With  this  hypothesis  to  guide  us,  let  us  study 
some  of  the  more  characteristic  sayings  of  Christ. 
What  is  the  "Sermon  on  the  Mount"  but  a  sys- 
tematic and  strenuous  attempt  to  revolutionise 
human  life  by  giving  men  a  new  ideal  and  a  new 
standpoint, — by  substituting,  in  accordance  with 
the  central  trend  of  Indian  thought,  an  entirely 


276      THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

inward  for  an  entirely  outward  standard  of  moral 
worth?  The  sayings  In  It  which  seem  to  be  vio- 
lent and  paradoxical,  when  we  Interpret  them  lit- 
erally, disclose  their  meaning  and  their  purpose 
directly  the  light  of  this  conception  Is  turned 
upon  them.  To  say  that  '^everyone  that  looketh 
upon  a  woman  to  lust  after  her  hath  committed 
adultery  with  her  already  In  his  heart"  Is,  one 
would  think,  to  disparage  by  Implication  the  self- 
control  which  arrests  lawless  desire  on  the  thresh- 
old of  lawless  action;  but  the  words  had  to  be 
spoken  In  order  that  the  reality  of  the  Inward 
standard  might  be  emphasised,  and  the  hollow- 
n:-s  of  formal  rules,  when  divorced  from  the 
spiritual  principles  that  are  behind  them,  might 
be  brought  home  to  his  hearers.  The  words,  "If 
thy  right  eye  cause  thee  to  stumble  pluck  It  out 
and  cast  It  from  thee"  are,  as  they  stand,  a  hard 
saying.  But  when  he  spoke  them,  Christ  was  but 
expressing  In  his  own  language  the  profound 
truth  which  Indian  thought  had  long  Insisted 
upon, — that  the  outward  self  (form,  sensation, 
perception  and  the  rest)  Is  unreal  and  valueless, 
in  comparison  with  the  overwhelming  reality  and 
Incalculable  value  of  the  Inward  life.  His  stern 
and  terrible  command  Is  In  Its  essence  the  echo  of 
what  Buddha  had  said,  centuries  before.  In  quite 
other  words:  "The  material  form  Is  not  the  self: 
the  sensations  are  not  the  self:  the  perceptions 
are  not  the  self:  the  conformations  [predlsposi- 


LIGHT  FROM  THE  EAST       277 

tions]  are  not  the  self:  the  consciousness  is  not 
the  self."* 

The  "Kingdom  of  Heaven,"  which  figures  so 
prominently  in  Christ's  discourses,  is  obviously 
the  kingdom  of  soul-life; — a  kingdom  which  is 
ever  at  hand,  ever  in  the  midst  of  us;  which  Im- 
mingles  itself  with  "the  world,"  or  kingdom  of 
the  surface  life,  as  the  eternal  immingles  itself 
with  the  transitory,  the  real  with  the  phantas- 
mal, truth  with  illusion,  light  with  darkness;  or, 
again,  which  waits  with  divine  patience  at  the 
heart  of  "the  world,"  as  "perfect  peace"  waits  at 
the  heart  of  fever  and  strife.  To  enter  this  in- 
ward Kingdom  Is  to  enter  "the  Path"  into  which 
Buddha  led  his  disciples.  To  become  (in  the 
fullest  sense  of  the  words)  a  naturalised  citizen 
of  the  Kingdom  is  to  pass  into  Nirvana.  When 
Christ  says,  "Lay  not  up  for  yourselves  treasures 
upon  the  earth,  where  moth  and  rust  doth  con- 
sume, and  where  thieves  break  through  and  steal ; 
but  lay  up  for  yourselves  treasures  in  heaven, 
where  neither  moth  nor  rust  doth  consume  and 
where  thieves  do  not  break  through  nor  steal ;  for 
where  thy  treasure  is  there  will  thy  heart  be 

^Compare  Sariputta's  words  in  his  dialogue  with 
Yamaka:  "As  regards  all  form  .  .  .all  sensation 
.  .  .  all  perception  ...  all  predispositions  .  .  . 
all  consciousness  .  .  .  the  correct  view  in  the  light 
of  the  highest  knowledge,  is  as  follows:  'This  is  not  mine: 
this  am  I  not:  this  is  not  my  Ego.'"  Can  it  be  that  the 
beautiful  story  of  Kunaia  [the  son  of  the  great  Buddhist 
Emperor.  Asoka],  whose  eyes  were  "plucked  out"  by  order 
of  his  wicked  stepmother,  had  made  its  way  to  Galilee? 


278       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

also,"  he  is  but  harping  on  the  theme,  so  familiar 
to  Indian  thought,  of  the  impermanence  of  out- 
ward things  and  the  permanence  of  the  inward 
life.  When  he  likens  the  kingdom  of  heaven  to 
the  "hidden  treasure"  or  the  "pearl  of  great 
price,"  to  win  which  a  man  will  sell  all  that  he 
has,  he  is  but  echoing  the  teaching  of  the  Indian 
sages  that  the  Self  within  the  self  is  alone  real, 
and  that  all  the  things  which  we  prize  must  be 
surrendered  in  order  that  He  may  be  won. 

Even  the  words  which  Christ  is  reported  to 
have  used  about  his  own  kinship  to  and  oneness 
with  "the  Father" — words  on  which  all  the  fan- 
tastic structures  of  Christian  theology  have  been 
based — are  but  the  expression,  in  a  new  notation, 
of  the  sublime  Indian  doctrine  that  "//^  is  the 
true  self  of  every  creature," — that  "Brahma  and 
the  self  are  one." 

Lastly,  the  great  question  in  which  the  whole 
of  Christ's  spiritual  teaching  is  summed  up  and 
typified — "What  shall  it  profit  a  man  if  he  gain 
the  whole  world  and  lose  his  own  soul;  or  what 
shall  a  man  give  in  exchange  for  his  soul?" — 
with  its  implicit  assumption  that  the  soul  is  great- 
er and  more  precious  than  "the  whole  world,"  is 
the  very  question  which  India  had  again  and 
again  asked  herself,  and  in  which  all  her  medita- 
tions on  great  matters  had  centred. 

The  ideas  which  dominated  Christ's  teaching, 
and  which,  according  to  my  hypothesis,  had  come 


LIGHT    FROM    THE    EAST     279 

to  him  from  the  Far  East,  were  not  wholly  new 
to  the  Graeco- Roman  world  of  his  day.  Xeno- 
phanes,  Parmenides,  Pythagoras  and  (above  all) 
Plato  had  expounded  them,  each  from  his  own 
point  of  view  and  in  his  own  language,  to  esoteric 
circles  of  disciples.  But  no  popular  exposition 
of  them  had  been  attempted  in  the  West  till 
Christ  came  under  their  influence  and  was  capti- 
vated by  their  truth  and  beauty.  Whether  they 
were  consciously  or  unconsciously  adopted  by 
Christ  matters  little.  The  broad  fact  confronts 
us  that  the  ideas  which  he  expounded  coincide, 
at  every  vital  point,  with  ideas  which  were  cur- 
rent in  India  many  centuries  before  the  Chris- 
tian era.  Had  India,  through  all  those  centuries, 
been  entirely  walled  off  from  Western  Asia  and 
Southeastern  Europe,  the  coincidences  between 
the  teaching  of  Christ  and  the  teaching  of  Bud- 
dha and  his  forerunners  might  conceivably  be 
regarded  as  purely  fortuitous.  But  never,  be- 
fore the  establishment  of  British  rule  In  In- 
dia, had  the  opportunities  for  Intercourse  be- 
tween East  and  West  been  so  numerous  or  so 
favourable  as  in  the  centuries  which  immediately 
preceded  the  birth  of  Christ.  For  during  a  part, 
at  least,  of  that  period  a  chain  of  partially 
Hellenised  kingdoms  stretched  from  India 
to  the  Mediterranean,  forming  a  broad 
highway  along  which  the  spiritual  ideas 
of    India    travelled,    slowly   but  surely,    West- 


28o       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

ward.  We  need  not  lay  much  stress  on  the 
Inscription  which  records  the  Intention  of  the 
Buddhist  Emperor,  Asoka,  to  send  missionaries 
from  India  to  Syria,  Egypt,  and  other  Hellenised 
lands,  In  order  to  preach  the  gospel  of  deliver- 
ance; for  we  have  no  evidence  that  those  mis- 
sionaries were  ever  sent.  But  the  migration  of  a 
spiritual  Idea  Is  not  dependent,  wholly  or  even 
mainly,  on  the  labours  of  Its  accredited  agents. 
The  decadence  of  religion  and  philosophy  In  the 
Graeco-Roman  world  during  the  centuries  which 
intervened  between  the  death  of  Alexander  and 
the  birth  of  Christ,  had  created  a  spiritual  vac- 
uum which  was  waiting  to  be  filled;  and  the 
westward  set  of  the  current  of  Indian  ideas  was 
as  natural  a  movement  as  that  of  the  Trade 
Winds  or  the  Gulf  Stream. 

But  If  we  may  not  say  that  Christ  originated 
the  Ideas  which  he  expounded,  we  may — and  must 
- — say  that  he  was  grandly  original  In  the  use  that 
he  made  of  them.  The  Inspired  teacher  Is  not  he 
who  invents  new  Ideas — for  great  Ideas  are  never 
invented — but  he  who  having  received  them, 
from  whatever  quarter,  is  able  to  assimilate  them 
and  make  them  his  own.  It  is  because  he  did  this 
to  the  largest  and  most  luminous  ideas  that  have 
yet  dawned  upon  the  human  spirit,  that  Christ 
must  take  rank  with  Buddha  as  one  of  the  fore- 
most teachers  of  mankind.  What  Buddha  had 
done  to  the  Ideas  of  the  Upanishads,  Christ  did 


LIGHT  FROM  THE  EAST       281 

to  the  same  ideas  when  they  had  come  to  him, 
as  they  probably  did,  through  the  medium  of 
Buddha's  ethical  teaching, — he  made  them  avail- 
able for  the  daily  needs  of  ordinary  men. 

But  the  method  by  which  Christ  worked  was 
entirely  his  ow^n.  To  graft  the  spiritual  idealism 
of  India  on  the  stem  of  Hebrew  poetry,  and  so 
to  bring  it  home  to  the  heart,  rather  than  to  the 
mind  or  the  conscience,  was  the  work  of  his  life. 
Leaving  it  to  thinkers,  like  Plato,  to  develop  the 
Idea  of  soul-growth  through  the  medium  of  ab- 
stract thought, — leaving  it  to  moralists,  like  Bud- 
dha, to  develop  it  through  the  medium  of  a 
scheme  of  life, — Christ  was  content  to  develop  it 
through  the  medium  of  poetic  emotion.  Out  of 
the  rival  conceptions  of  God  which  were  sym- 
bolised by  Brahma  and  Jehovah  respectively,  he 
devised  a  third — the  ''resultant"  of  their  respect- 
ive forces — the  idea  of  the  All-Father  who  loves 
and  is  loved  by  his  children,  men.  Setting  be- 
fore men,  as  Plato  and  Buddha  had  done,  the 
finding  of  the  soul  or  true  self  as  the  goal  of  their 
life's  endeavour,  he  neither  gave  them  reasons 
for  pursuing  that  goal  (as  Plato  had  done)  nor 
directions  for  pursuing  it  (as  Buddha  had  done) , 
but  he  gave  them  instead  of  these  a  motive  for 
pursuing  it — of  all  motiv^es  the  strongest  and  the 
purest — the  quasi-personal  love  of  the  All-loving 
God.  Where  Plato  and  where  Buddha  were 
strong,  each  In  his  own  way,  Christ  was  by  com- 


282       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

parison  weak;  but  he  had  a  strength  which  was 
all  his  own.  Plato  reasoned  about  God.  Bud- 
dha kept  silence  about  God.  Christ  made  him 
the  theme  of  his  poetr}^  Each  of  these  modes  of 
dealing  with  the  idea  of  the  Divine  has  its  own 
merits  and  its  own  defects.  The  defects  of 
Christ's  treatment  of  the  idea  are  obvious.  The 
teacher  who  tries  to  popularise  spiritual  truth  by 
formulating  it  in  terms  of  poetr)^  may  almost  be 
said  to  invite  men  to  literalise  and  desplritualise 
his  teaching.  Christ  took  this  risk  and  paid  the 
penalty  of  his  daring.  But  though  the  penalty 
was  a  heavy  one,  yet  when  he  had  paid  it  in  full 
there  was  a  substantial  balance  in  his  favour.  As 
a  speculative  thinker  he  does  not  compete  with 
Plato.  As  a  systematic  teacher  he  does  not  com- 
pete with  Buddha.  But  as  a  source  of  spiritual 
inspiration  he  has  no  rival. 

With  Christ's  example  before  us,  we  nttd  not 
hesitate  to  go  for  spiritual  ideas  to  the  onlv  land 
in  v/hich  they  have  ever  (as  far  as  we  know) 
been  indigenous, — to  Ancient  India.  In  the  In- 
dia which  gave  birth  to  the  Upanishads,  belief 
in  the  soul  grew  on  Its  own  stock  and  sprang 
from  its  own  roots.  No  attempt  was  made  to 
prove  the  reality  of  the  soul,  or  to  apologise  for 
the  belief  in  it.  So  far  as  any  reason  was  given 
for  the   "soul-theory,"   it  was   a   reason   which 


LIGHT  FROM  THE  EAST       283 

proved — If  I  may  be  allowed  the  paradox — that 
the  reality  of  the  soul  Is  unprovable. 

''Only  by  soul  itself 
Is  soul  perceived — when  the  Soul  wills  it  so ! 
There  shines  no  light  save  its  own  light  to  show 
Itself  unto  itself."* 

The  idealistic  ventures  of  the  West  have  all 
suffered  shipwreck  on  the  rock  of  the  average 
man's  "common-sense," — an  euphemistic  title  for 
his  spiritual  Indolence,  his  lack  of  imagination, 
and  his  Inability  to  think  clearly  or  coherently. 
But  the  spiritual  thought  of  India,  in  the  days 
when  her  soul  was  awake  and  active,  was, 
at  its  highest  level,  strictly  esoteric.  In  the 
teaching  of  Buddha  we  have  the  nearest  ap- 
proach to  popularising  it  that  was  ever  made ; 
but  what  Buddha  submitted  to  the  average 
man  were,  not  the  conclusions  of  Indian 
idealism,  not  the  reasons  for  those  conclusions, 
but  their  practical  consequences.  That  the 
average  man  was  deeply  interested  In  the 
soundness  of  Buddha's  scheme  of  life,  was  no 
reason  (so  Its  author  seems  to  have  thought)  for 
allowing  him  to  examine  the  philosophical  con- 
ceptions that  underlay  it.  The  average  man  is 
deeply  interested  in  the  stability  of  the  Forth 
Bridge;  but  had  the  engineers  of  that  structure 
invited  him  to  handle  the  profound  mathematical 
problems  which  had  to  be  solved  before  their  de- 
signs could  be  completed,  they  would  justly  have 
*"The  Secret  of  Death,"  by  Sir  Edwin  Arnold. 


284       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

been  deemed  insane.  Not  less  Insane  would  it 
have  seemed  to  the  Master  Thinkers  of  India  to 
allow  the  average  man  to  handle  the  problem  of 
reality,  or  any  kindred  problem. 

It  Is  true  that  to  Ignore  the  average  man  in  the 
region  of  high  thinking  is  a  loss  to  the  life  of  a 
nation  as  well  as  a  gain;  and  that  India  has  paid 
heavily  for  having  Ignored  him.  But  the  gain 
to  her  thought,  while  her  spiritual  life  was  at  or 
near  Its  zenith,  was  immense.  Serenely  indifferent 
to  the  verdict  of  the  market  place,  Indian  ideal- 
ism never  explains  Itself,  never  gives  account  of 
itself,  never  even  for  a  moment  distrusts  itself. 
This  means  that  under  Its  aegis  the  soul's  belief 
in  itself  is  complete.  And  this  again  means  that 
the  soul  is  not  curious  about  itself,  or  about  the 
worlds  of  which  it  is  at  once  the  centre  and  the 
circumference;  that  it  is  content  with  Ideas  and 
Impatient  of  formulae;  that  high  thinking  is 
neither  the  master  nor  the  servant  of  spiritual  de- 
sire, but  its  peer  and  its  other  self;  that  the  head 
is  ready  to  give  the  heart  the  guidance  that  it 
really  needs, — the  guidance  that  stimulates  to 
fresh  endeavour,  not  the  guidance  that  bhnds  the 
vision  and  paralyses  the  will. 

It  is  to  India  then — the  India  of  the  Upani- 
shads  and  of  Buddha — that  the  West  must  go  for 
the  Ideas,  both  central  and  subordinate,  which 
shall  rescue  it  from  its  embarrassments  and  re- 
store it  to  a  state  of  spiritual  solvency.     The 


LIGHT  FROM  THE  EAST       285 

central  Idea  for  which  It  Is  waiting  Is  that 
of  the  reality  of  the  soul.  Of  the  sub-ideas  to 
which  this  Idea  is  central  It  must  select  those 
which  it  will  find  most  easy  to  assimilate. 
For  if  it  is  to  put  the  ideas  that  It  borrows 
to  a  profitable  use,  it  must  make  them  Its 
own;  it  must,  in  a  manner,  re-create  them  by 
bringing  them  into  harmony  with  the  highest 
achievements  of  its  own  thought.  Now  the  high- 
est achievements  of  the  Western  mind  are  and 
have  long  been  scientific.  It  Is  In  the  sphere  of 
physical  science  that  its  m.ost  successful  work  has 
been  done,  and  that  Its  most  characteristic  quali- 
ties have  been  developed.  There  are  obvious 
reasons — In  the  West,  where  for  centuries  men 
have  been  authoritatively  taught  to  identify  the 
impalpable  wnth  the  supernatural,  there  are  spe- 
cial reasons — why  the  physical  or  palpable  side 
of  Nature  should  have  been  the  first  for  Science 
to  explore.  But  there  is  no  reason  w^hy  Science 
should  confine  her  operations  to  that  particular 
sphere.  To  be  Immersed  In  physical  matter  Is 
not  of  the  essence  of  Science.  What  Is  of  her 
essence  is  the  secret  faith  which  Is  the  mainspring 
of  all  her  energies, — the  faith  of  the  soul  of  man 
In  the  intrinsic  unity  of  Nature,  its  latent  belief 
that  the  Universe  Is  "not  an  aggregate  but  a 
whole."  The  aim  of  science — an  aim  which  is 
not  the  less  real  because  it  Is  seldom  consciously 
realised — Is  to  discover  one  all-pervading  sub- 


286       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

stance,  one  all-controlling  force,  one  all-regulat- 
ing law.  Subordinate  to,  but  vitally  connected 
with,  the  belief  In  the  unity  of  Nature  Is  the  belief 
In  law, — the  belief  of  the  soul  In  the  veracity  of 
Nature,  In  the  stability  and  self-Identity  of  the 
Universe.  These  two  beliefs  (If  we  are  to  call 
them  two)  constitute  the  true  creed  of  Science. 
They  are  beliefs,  be  It  observed,  not  disbeliefs. 
Each  of  them  has  Its  counterpart  In  what  I  may 
call  a  cosmic  desire, — in  the  Instinctive  response 
of  the  soul  to  a  message  from  the  heart  of  the 
Universe.  What  passes  in  certain  quarters  for 
the  creed  of  Science  Is  a  series  of  dogmatic  nega- 
tions or  disbeliefs.  But  the  true  creed  Is  a 
faith,  a  hope,  and  an  aspiration;  and,  sooner  or 
later.  It  will  find  expression  for  Itself  In  action,  In 
conduct,  In  life. 

Such  being.  In  its  essence,  the  creed  or  secret 
faith  of  Science,  it  is  a  shock  to  the  scientific 
thought  of  the  West,  when  It  asks  philosophy  to 
give  it  the  ground  plan  of  the  Universe,  to  find 
itself  face  to  face  v/ith  the  dualism  of  popular 
thought.  The  very  raison  d! etre  of  Science  Is  to 
prove  that  the  Universe  Is  an  organic  whole ;  and 
it  is  therefore  an  insult  and  a  mockery  to  the 
mind  which  has  long  been  living  In  an  atmos- 
phere of  scientific  effort  and  achievement,  to  be 
told  that  there  are  two  worlds  or  spheres  of  being 
in  the  Universe,  not  one;  that  these  two  worlds 
are  parted  by  an  unfathomable  abyss  of  nothing- 


LIGHT  FROM  THE  EAST       287 

ncss  which  makes  natural  intercourse  between 
them  impossible;  and  that  the  Supreme  Power 
which  is  supposed  to  have  fashioned  the  world 
of  Nature,  and  which  now  dwells  apart  from  it 
In  the  supernatural  Heaven,  reveals  Itself  at  Its 
own  good  pleasure  to  the  dwellers  In  Nature  by 
suspending  the  laws  which  are  (one  must  be- 
lieve) the  expression  of  Its  own  being, — In  other 
words,  by  stultifying  Its  own  work  and  thwarting 
its  own  will.  What  wonder  that  the  Western 
mind.  In  the  violence  of  Its  re-action  from  so  irra- 
tional a  philosophy,  should  surrender  Itself  to  a 
theory  of  things  which  it  regards  as  the  only 
possible  alternative  for  dualism, — to  a  material- 
istic monism  In  which  unity  Is  achieved  by  sup- 
pressing the  impalpable,  and  therefore  by  de- 
spiritualising  and  devitalising  the  Universe? 
And  what  wonder  that  It  should  be  unable  to  re- 
alise, owing  to  the  poison  of  dualism  being  still  In 
Its  veins,  that  a  monism  which  Is  based  on  a  com- 
prehensive negation  is  not  an  alternative  for  dual- 
ism, but  a  new  version  of  It; — the  attempt  to  es- 
cape from  dualism,  by  suppressing  one  of  the 
terms  of  a  given  antithesis,  leading  one  of  logical 
necessity  Into  the  tolls  of  a  deadlier  fallacy, — the 
fundamental  dualism  of  the  existent  and  the  non- 
existent f 

If  the  ''advanced"  thought  of  the  West  de- 
sires, in  general,  to  convince  itself  of  the  unity 
of  the  Universe,  it  desires,  more  particularly,  to 


288       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

bring  the  life  of  the  soul — to  bring  the  moral  and 
spiritual  worlds  In  which  the  life  of  the  soul  ex- 
presses Itself — under  the  reign  of  natural  law. 
This  desire,  which  Is  both  legitimate  and  salu- 
tary, Is  systematically  thwarted  by  the  dogmatic 
teaching  of  those  who  pose  as  the  champions  of 
the  soul.     For  twenty  centuries  the  "soul-theory" 
has  been  presented  to  the  consciousness  of  the 
West  In  the  notation  of  the  Supernatural.    As  so 
presented,  It  outrages  at  every  turn  man's  sense 
of  law  and  his  cognate  (and  virtually  Identical) 
sense  of  justice.     To  teach  man  that  sin  entered 
the  world  because  his  "first  parents"  violated  an 
arbitrary  command  of  the  supernatural  God;  that 
because  of  this  one  original  act  of  disobedience 
the  whole  human  race  stands  condemned  to  eter- 
nal death;  that  the  death  of  Christ  on  the  cross 
has  made  It  possible  for  men  to  escape  from  the 
terrible  consequences  of  Adam's  sin ;  that  this  one 
brief  earth-life  decides  for  all  time  the  destiny 
of  each  Individual  soul ;  that  either  eternal  salva- 
tion or  eternal  damnation  awaits  the  departed 
spirit;  that  grace  (the  higher  life  of  the  soul)  is 
a  supernaturally  communicated  gift,  a  water  of 
healing  which  (as  some  contend)  is  "laid  on"  at 
every  priest-served  altar,  or  (as  others  contend) 
takes  possession  of  the  "elect"  in  a  sudden  and 
Irresistible  stream; — to  teach  man  such  things  as 
these  is  to  make  open  mockery  of  his  sense  of  law 
and  order  and  justice,  and  to  warn  him  at  the 


LIGHT  FROM  THE  EAST       289 

outset  that  there  can  be  no  science  of  the  Inner 
life.  To  this  mockery  and  this  warning  the  scien- 
tific thought  of  the  West  has  begun  to  reply  with 
open  defiance.  Forbidden  by  supernaturalism  to 
bring  the  life  of  the  soul  under  the  sway  of  nat- 
ural law,  it  is  being  led  by  the  secret  logic  of  its 
faith  (for  it  cannot  but  cling  to  its  intuitive  con- 
viction that  the  realm  of  natural  law  is  co-termi- 
nous  with  the  Universe)  to  disbelieve  in  the  life 
of  the  soul,  to  ask  for  proofs  of  its  existence,  and 
at  last  to  relegate  the  whole  "soul-theory"  to  the 
limbo  of  exploded  superstitions.  In  thus  aban- 
doning the  "soul-theory,"  the  advanced  thinkers 
of  the  West  imagine  that  they  are  undoing  the 
demoralising  work  of  supernaturalism.  But  in 
this  matter,  as  in  their  treatment  of  the  general 
problem  of  dualism,  the  remedy  that  they  offer 
is  worse  than  the  disease.  The  West  has  never 
realised — so  faulty  has  been  its  ethical  training — 
that  the  inward  consequences  of  moral  action  are 
regulated  by  one  of  Nature's  most  just  and  most 
inexorable  laws;  and  the  normal  attitude  of  the 
average  man  towards  the  problem  of  moral  re- 
sponsibility is  that,  apart  from  legal  and  social 
considerations,  it  matters  little  how  one  acts.  He 
still  feels,  however,  that  it  matters  something;  for 
the  general  idea  that  moral  goodness  makes  for 
the  well-being  of  the  soul  has  always  been  formal- 
ly countenanced  by  supernaturalism,  and  is  still, 
In  some  degree,  a  restraining,  if  not  an  inspiring, 


290      THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

Influence  In  his  life.  But  let  him  be  fully  con- 
vinced that  he  has  no  Inward  life,  and  that  there- 
fore his  conduct  can  have  no  Inward  conse- 
quences,— and  It  will  not  be  long  before  he  feels 
his  way  to  the  logical  conclusion  that  (again 
apart  from  legal  and  social  considerations)  it 
matters  nothing  how  one  acts. 

We  see,  then,  that  the  advanced  thought  of  the 
West  has,  unknown  to  Itself,  a  true  and  deep  phi- 
losophy of  Its  own, — a  philosophy  which  centres 
In  recognition  of  the  essential  unity  of  Nature 
and  of  the  all-pervading  supremacy  of  natural 
law.  In  virtue  of  this  unformulated  philosophy, 
it  Is  the  sworn  enemy  of  dualism  In  general  and 
of  supernaturalism  In  particular;  but  It  cannot  yet 
realise  what  its  hostility  to  dualism  means,  or 
where  It  Is  to  find  the  remedy  for  the  evil  which 
it  dimly  discerns.  The  remedy  for  dualism  is  not 
the  monism  (if  one  must  call  it  so)  which  sup- 
presses one  of  the  terms  of  a  world-embracing 
antithesis,  but  the  higher  monism  which  recog- 
nises that  each  term  is  the  complement  and  cor- 
relate of  the  other;  nay,  that  there  Is  a  reciprocal 
relation  between  the  two  in  virtue  of  which  each 
in  turn  owes  to  the  other  Its  meaning,  Its  purpose, 
and  (in  the  last  resort)  Its  very  right  to  exist; — 
which  recognises,  for  example,  that  silence  *'im- 
plies  sound,"  that  failure  Is  "a  triumph's  evi- 
dence," that  the  supernatural  world  Is  at  the 
heart  of  Nature,  that  form  Is  as  truly  the  ex- 


LIGHT  FROM  THE  EAST       291 

pression  of  spirit,  as  spirit  is  the  soul  and  life  of 
form.* 

Such  a  monism  was  once  taught  in  the  Far 
East.  The  Indian  doctrine  of  the  fundamental 
identity  of  the  individual  and  the  universal  life, 
and,  more  especially,  of  the  ideal  identity  of  the 
individual  with  the  Universal  Soul,  makes  an  end, 
once  and  for  all,  of  the  false  dualism  of  the  hu- 
man and  the  Divine,  t  and  provides  for  the  return 
of  the  Lord  and  Giver  of  Life  from  his  exile  in 
the  supernatural  dreamland  to  his  home  at  the 
heart  of  Nature.  If  Western  thought  will  accept 
this  doctrine  as  a  provisional  theory  of  things,  and 
try  to  master  its  meaning,  it  will  be  able  to  extend 
the  conception  of  natural  law  to  the  inner  life  of 
man  and  to  all  the  worlds — moral,  aesthetic, 
poetic,  religious,  and  the  rest — which  the  ferment 
of  that  life  has  generated;  it  will  be  able,  in  due 
course,  to  take  in  hand  the  task  for  which  its 
special  bent  and  special  training  are  even  now 
equipping  it,  the  task  of  building  up  the  science 
of  the  soul. 

*The  initial  mistake  of  modern  materialism  is  to  assume 
that  there  can  be  no  form  except  what  is  discernible,  di- 
rectly or  indirectly,  by  man's  bodily  senses, — a  naively  ego- 
tistic assumption  which  has  nothing  to  say  for  itself  ex- 
cept that  it  seems  a  truism  to  a  certain  type  of  mind. 

tl  am  sometimes  told  that,  if  I  do  not  believe  in  the 
supernatural  Divinity  of  Christ,  I  have  no  choice  but  to 
regard  him  as  a  "mere  man."  What  is  a  ''mere  man"?  I 
have  not  the  faintest  conception.  What  is  "mere"  Nature? 
What  is  "mere"  beauty?  What  is  "mere"  life?  When  a 
noun  has  an  unfathomable  depth  of  meaning,  "mere,"  in 
the  limiting  sense  of  the  word,  is  surely  the  last  adjective 
to  apply  to  it. 


292       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

When  it  takes  that  task  In  hand,  it  will  find 
that  Buddha  has  anticipated  it,  to  the  extent  of 
indicating  the  main  lines  on  which  it  will  have  to 
work.  An  attempt  has  been  made  by  some  of 
the  Western  exponents  of  Buddhism  to  show  that 
the  teaching  of  Buddha  falls  into  line  with  the 
anti-idealistic  theories  of  the  dominant  school  of 
Western  thought.  The  attempt  has  not  been  suc- 
cessful ;  for  it  can  be  shown,  I  think,  that  Buddha 
based  his  scheme  of  life,  not  on  rejection  of  the 
"soul-theory," but  on  whole-hearted  acceptance  of 
it.  But  those  who  contend  that  Buddha's  philos- 
ophy is  modern  and  Western,  have  come  within 
a  little  of  stumbling  upon  an  Important  truth. 
Akin  to  us  in  blood,  the  founder  of  Buddhism 
was  also  akin  to  us  in  the  scientific  bent  of  his 
mind,  in  his  grasp  of  the  Idea  of  law.  His  teach- 
ing does  not  fall  Into  line  with  our  thought,  for 
in  truth  he  was  far  more  "advanced"  than  we 
are;  but  it  Is  possible  that  our  thought,  as  it  de- 
velops, will  come  into  line  with  his  teaching. 

The  scientific  achievements  of  the  West,  so  far 
as  they  have  any  philosophical  significance,  fall 
under  two  main  heads, — the  discovery  (if  I  may 
use  the  word),  on  the  physical  plane,  that  the 
Kingdom  of  Nature  is  under  the  reign  of  law  (a 
conception  of  Nature  which  Science  must  have 
unconsciously  brought  with  her  to  her  work  of 
investigation,  and  which  has  made  that  work  pos- 
sible) ;  and  the  further  discovery  that  all  laws  of 


LIGHT  FROM  THE  EAST       293 

Nature  are  subordinate  to  the  master  law  of 
development  or  growth."^  Both  these  discoveries 
were  anticipated  by  Buddha ;  but  they  were  made 
by  him — or  by  the  thinkers  who  sowed  what  he 
reaped — not  on  the  physical  plane,  but  on  the 
spiritual,  on  the  plane  of  man's  inner  life.  Bud- 
dha realised,  as  no  man  before  (or  since)  had 
ever  done,  that  the  soul  is  a  living  thing,  and 
that,  as  such,  it  comes  under  the  all-pervading, 
all-controlling  law  of  growth.  And  he  realised 
the  practical  bearing  of  this  conception. 

Physical  science  says  to  the  husbandman,  ''Do 
such  and  such  things,  and  your  crops  (taking  one 
season  with  another)  will  be  abundant:  neglect 
to  do  them,  and  your  crops  will  be  poor;"  or,  in 
other  words,  "Bring  your  husbandry  into  har- 
mony with  certain  laws  of  physical  Nature,  and 
you  will  fare  well.  Disregard  those  laws,  and 
you  will  fare  ill."  What  the  science  of  the  West 
Is  doing  for  the  growth  (and  the  development) 
of  wheat  and  barley,  Buddha  did  for  the  growth 
of  the  soul.  He  taught  men  that,  if  they  would 
bring  their  lives  into  harmony  with  certain  fun- 
damental laws  of  Nature,  their  souls  would  grow 
— as  well-tended  crops  grow — vigorously  and 
healthily;  and  that  the  sense  of  well-being  which 
accompanies  successful  growth,  and  which,  when 
consciously  realised,  is  true  happiness,  would  be 

*We  speak  of  the  growth  of  an  individual  organism;  of 
the  developme7it  of  a  type.  As  the  soul  is  both  individual 
and  universal,  either  term  may  be  applied  to  it. 


294       THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

theirs.  He  taught  them  this;  and,  in  teaching  It, 
he  made  that  appeal  to  their  will-power  which  Is 
his  chief  contribution  to  the  edification,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  the  Instruction,  of  the  soul.  The 
husbandman  must  take  thought  for  his  plants  If 
their  lives  are  to  be  brought  Into  harmony  with 
the  appropriate  laws  of  Nature;  but  the  plant 
which  we  call  the  soul  must  take  thought  for  It- 
self. Penetrated  with  the  conviction  that  what  a 
man  does  reacts,  naturally  and  necessarily,  on 
what  he  Is,  and  so  affects  for  all  time  the  growth 
of  the  soul  and  Its  consequent  well-being;  pene- 
trated with  the  conviction  that  conduct  moulds 
character, and  that  character  Is  destiny; — Buddha 
called  upon  each  man  In  turn  to  take  his  life  Into 
his  own  hands,  and  himself  to  direct  the  process 
of  his  growth. 

This  message  was  his  legacy  to  the  ages.  It 
Is  for  Western  thought  to  take  It  up  and  repeat  it, 
developing  in  Its  own  way  the  mighty  Ideas  that 
are  behind  It.  Dr.  Rhys  Davids  seems  to  think 
that  it  is  "unmanly"*  to  take  thought  for  one's 
soul;  and  It  Is  possible  that  care  for  the  soul  has 
at  times  taken  forms  which  are  open  to  this  re- 
proach. But  when  the  Idea  of  soul-growth  Is  in- 
terpreted In  the  light  of  the  Idea  of  Inexorable 
law.  It  loses  the  sickly  savour  which  clings.  In 

*"The  ancient  Aryans  were  far  too  manly  and  free  to 
be  troubled  much  about  their  own  souls,  either  before  or 
after  the  death  of  the  body." — "American  Lectures  on 
Buddha,"  p.  17. 


IJGHT  FROM  THE  EAST       295 

some  slight  measure,  to  the  Ideal  of  salntHness, 
and  one  begins  to  realise  that  to  take  oneself  In 
hand  and  to  make  one's  soul  grow,  by  the  con- 
stant exercise  of  Initiative  and  self-control,  is  to 
rise  to  an  even  loftier  level  than  that  of  manli- 
ness (which,  after  all,  is  but  the  virtue  of  a  sex) , 
— to  the  level  of  true  manhood.  The  scheme  of 
life  in  which  Buddha  embodied  his  science  of  the 
soul  Is  in  the  highest  degree  bracing  and  stimulat- 
ing; and  one  of  the  chief  sources  of  its  tonic  In- 
fluence is  the  sternness  with  which  it  insists  on 
the  merciless  majesty  of  Nature's  laws.  Just  as 
physical  science  warns  us  that,  if  we  drink  pollu- 
ted water  (let  us  say) ,  our  health  will  suffer,  and 
the  elimination  of  the  poison  from  our  bodies 
will  be  a  long  and  painful  process,  so  Buddha 
warns  men  that  wrong-doing  is  not  less  cer- 
tain to  work  Itself  out  of  the  soul  as  sorrow  and 
suffering  than  Is  right-doing  to  work  Itself  into 
the  soul  as  health,  and  therefore  as  happiness  and 
peace.  That  nothing  can  come  between  conduct 
and  its  Inward  consequences — between  w^hat  we 
do  and  what  we  are  and  shall  be — Is  the  convic- 
tion on  which  the  whole  of  his  teaching  Is  hinged. 
The  ideas  about  God  and  Man  and  the  Universe 
which  have  made  possible  the  Christian  belief  In 
the  forgiveness  of  sins,  belong  to  a  quarter  of 
thought  in  which  his  mind  never  moved.  Unlike 
Jehovah,  who  Is  angry  and  then  repents  and  for- 


296      THE  CREED  OF  BUDDHA 

gives,  the  power  which  is  at  the  heart  of  Nature 

"Knows  not  wrath  nor  pardon." 

If  we  SOW  the  seed  of  wheat  we  shall  reap  wheat, 
and  reap  it,  if  we  have  been  wise  husbandmen,  in 
abundant  measure.  But  if  we  sow  the  seed  of 
thistles,  we  must  know  for  certain  that  our  crop 
will  be  thistles,  not  wheat. 

These  ideas  are  eminently  congenial  to  the 
scientific  tone  of  Western  thought;  and  the  day 
will  come  (I  venture  to  predict)  when  the  con- 
ception of  life  which  they  embody  will  be  ac- 
cepted in  the  West  as  the  sanest  and  truest  con- 
ception that  the  mind  of  man  has  yet  devised,  and 
as  the  only  stable  foundation  on  which  to  build — 
what  will  surely  be  the  fittest  monument  to  Bud- 
dha's greatness — the  science  of  the  soul.  The 
task  of  building  that  monument,  of  interpreting 
in  the  light  of  modern  experiences  and  adapting 
to  modern  needs  the  spiritual  ideas  of  ancient 
India,  will  probably  devolve  upon  the  West 
(which  is  unconsciously  preparing  itself  for  the 
task  by  its  arduous  work  in  the  field  of  physical 
science) ,  rather  than  upon  the  East.  Should  that 
be  so,  and  should  the  West  rise  to  the  level  of  its 
opportunity,  it  would  at  last  find  itself  in  a  posi- 
tion to  pay  back  the  loan  that  had  saved  its 
credit;  for  it  would  have  traded  with  its  bor- 
rowed ideas  to  the  best  advantage,  and  would 
have  duly  enriched  them  with  its  own  thought, 
its  own  labour,  and  its  own  life. 


LIGHT  FROM  THE  EAST      297 

Before  these  things  can  come  to  pass  one  prac- 
tical difficulty  will  have  to  be  overcome.  It  Is 
possible  that  the  sentimental  thought  of  the  West 
will  offer  as  strong  an  opposition  to  the  Idea  of 
the  life  and  destiny  of  the  soul  being  regulated 
by  Inexorable  law,  as  Is  now  offered  by  the  Intel- 
lectual thought  of  the  West  to  the  root-Idea  of 
soul-life.  But  the  advanced  thinker  of  that  dis- 
tant day  will  be  able  to  re-assure  his  weaker 
brethren.  For  he  will  remind  them  that  the  Uni- 
versal Soul,  which  Is  the  true  self  of  each  of  us, 
and  which  the  process  of  soul-growth  will  there- 
fore enable  each  of  us  to  realise,  Is  the  same  for 
all  men;  and  he  will  ask  them  to  Infer  from  this 
that  the  most  Inexorable  of  all  Nature's  laws  is 
the  law  to  which  even  the  master  law  of  growth 
is  In  a  sense  subordinate, — the  law  which  makes 
the  Universe  one  living  whole,  the  law  of  cen- 
tripetal tendency,  the  law  of  Love. 


THE  END 


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of  Chicago. 

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written." — Toronto  Mail  and  Empire. 

Stained  Glass  Tours  in  England. 

Illustrated.     Cloth  Svo.     $2.50  net.     Postage  20  cents. 

"Just  the  information  that  many  travellers  in  England  need.  All 
in  an  orderly  and  sprightly  manner." — Professor  William  Lyon 
Phelps,  Yale  University. 

"Well  conceived  and  original." — Atheneeum. 

%*"In  these  days  of  universal  travel  and  of  the  almost  universal 
writing  of  travel  books,  it  is  unusual  to  find  an  author  whose  point 
of  view  is  unique  and  whose  subject-matter  is  unhackneyed.  Mr. 
Sherrill  has  met  both  of  these  difficult  requirements." — The  Dial. 


KATRINA  TRASK 
KING  ALFRED'S   JEWEL 

A  DRAMA  IN  BLANK  VERSE 

Cloth.     12mo.     $1.25  net.      Postage  10  cents.      Half  Morocco^  $4.00  net 
With  Colored  Frontispiece  Reproducing  the  Jewel  now  at  Oxford 


C(  I 


The  English-speaking  world  has  waited  a  thousand  years 
for  a  worthy  dramatic  impersonation  of  King  Alfred.  And 
here  it  is.  .  .  The  play  will  stand  not  alone  upon  the  grateful 
response  it  wins  from  the  English  national  heart,  but  as  a  work 
of  art.  .  .  The  author  is  supremely  a  poet,  the  master  of  meta- 
phor not  less  than  of  melody.  .  .  It  is  a  play  not  only  to  be 
read  but  to  be  acted.  .  .  This  vivid  drama  is  not  cast  in  the 
conventional  classic  mould.  It  is  distinctly  and  wholly  English 
in  spirit  and  form,  and  intensely  modern — but  breathing  the 

air  of  morning,  of  Springtime,  of  fresh  adventure." 

— Henry  Mills  Alden,  The  Ne-iv  York  Times  Saturday  Re'vie^w, 

"Vivid  presentation  of  Alfred  as  a  man,  strong  in  passion, 

high  in  reason,  great  in  soul.     The  author's  imagination  has 

made  itself  felt  with  vigor  and  charm." 

— Dr.  Henry  Van  Dyke,  The  Outlook, 

**The  living  Alfred  lives  in  this  gracious  play,  for  the 

author  has  fashioned  his  great  spirit  out  of  the  mist  of  time." 

— James  Douglas,  The  Star^  London. 

NIGHT  AND   MORNING 

12mo.      Cloth,  $1.25  net.      Postage,  10  cents.      Half  Morocco,  $4.00  net 

An  inspiring  message  to  humanity,  a  noteworthy  contri- 
bution to  literature.  .  .  The  poem,  as  a  whole,  is  of  surpassing 
beauty  and  of  Miltonic  dignity.  This  quality  of  its  verse  and 
the  high  quality  of  its  philosophy  should  destine  *  Night  and 

Morning'  to  become  immortal." 

—  The  Times  Saturday  Re<vienv,  Nenv  York. 

*' Although  there  is  passion  in  the  subject,  there  is  repose 
in  the  art.  Mrs.  Trask  is  both  truly  poetic  in  her  feeling  and 
artistic  in  her  handling."  —The  Post,  Chicago. 


C( 


VERNON  LEE 

Cloth.     12mo.     $1.50  net  each.     Postage  15  cents. 

If  we  were  asked  to  name  the  three  authors  writing  in  English 
to-day  to  whom  the  highest  rank  of  cleverness  and  brilliancy  might  be 
accorded,  we  would  not  hesitate  to  place  among  them  Vernon  Lee.'* 
VanitaS  -Baltimore  Sun. 

Altheai  Dialogues  on  Aspirations  and  Duties 
Laurus  Nobilis:   Essays  on  Art  and  Life 

Renaissance  Fancies  and  Studies 

The  Countess  of  Albany 

Limbo  and  Other  Essays,  including: 

"Ariadne  in  Mantua" 
Pope  Jacynth,  and  Other  Fantastic  Tales 
Hortus  Vitae,  or  the  Hanging  Gardens 
The  Sentimental  Traveller 
The  Enchanted  Woods 
The  Spirit  of  Rome 
Genius  Loci 
Hauntings 

SEEKERS  IN  SICILY 

Being  a  Quest  for  Persephone 
BY  ELIZABETH   BISLAND  AND  ANNE   HOYT 

Cloth.     12mo.     $1.50  net.     Postage  20  cents.     Illustrated. 

A  delightful  account  of  Sicily,  its  people,  country  and  villages.  More 
than  a  guide  book,  this  volume  is  a  comprehensive  account  of  vphat  all 
vpho  are  interested  in  this  beautiful  island  wish  to  know. 

THE  SECRET  LIFE 

Being  the  Book  of  a  Heretic 
BY  ELIZABETH  BISLAND 

Gloth.       12mo.       $1.50  net.       Postage  8  cents. 


ti 


A  book  of  untrammeled  thought  on  living  topics  freely  expressed 
without  restraint  in  a  journal  intended,  as  it  were,  for  no  other  eye  than 
that  of  the  confiding  author."  — Philadelphia  Press. 


GEORGE  BERNARD  SHAW 

BY 

GILBERT  K.  CHESTERTON 
An  Illustrated  Biography 

Cloth,  12mo.  $1.50  net.    Postage  12cts. 

**  It  is  a  fascinating  portrait  study  and  I  am  proud  to  have  been  the 
painter's  model." — G.  B.  Shaiv  in  The  Nation  (London). 

"Scintillates  with  good  things." — Buffalo  Illustrated  Times. 

"The  cleverest  man  in  all  the  world,  with  the  second  cleverest  as 
his  subject,  is  here  doing  his  cleverest  writing.  Not  since  St. 
Augustine  have  the  gods  sent  us  such  a  man  who  could  make  the 
incredible  so  fascinatingly  probable.  " — The  Smart  Set. 

**A  most  entertaining  book  full  of  illuminating  phrases  on  many 
subjects." — The  Outlook. 

"  Decidedly  good  reading  and  emphatically  good  companionship." 
—  Tonvn  and  Country. 


tt 


Human  as  well  as  clever.  All  about  Shaw,  when  it  is  not  more 
directly  concerned  with  God  and  G.  K.  Chesterton.*' — Evening 
Standard  and  St.  James  Gazette  (London). 

"Will  justify  every  favorable  expectation  which  could  be  formed 
of  it.  Will  take  rank  with  the  very  best  things  he  has  ever  written. 
His  thoughtful  analysis  of  Shaw 's  character  will  help  many  a  reader 
to  an  understanding." — Philadelphia  Public  Ledger. 

"Amusing — dazzling — apparently  irresponsible,  Chesterton's  por- 
trait is  like  one  of  Rodin's  conceptions  in  sculpture  ....  Mr. 
Chesterton  has  never  been  cleverer  than  in  his  latest  biography." — 
Toronto  Neivs. 

**The  most  readable  book  of  this  character  ever  published." — 
Leslie'' s  Weekly. 

**As  entertaining  as  anything  Mr.  Chesterton's  exuberant  genius 
has  yet  produced.     All  his  wonted  sureness." — The  Dial. 

"Not  to  be  able  to  be  dull  is  G.  K.  Chesterton's  most  remarkable 
characteristic." — Nenvark  Enjening  Nenvs. 


SOCIALISM    AND 
SUPERIOR  BRAINS 

BY 

BERNARD  SHAW 

Cloth.     J6mo.     75  cents  net.     Postage  10  cents. 

Some  Topics  Treated  in  this  Book 

A  Reply  to  Mr.  Mallock. 

The  Able  Author. 

The  Able  Inventor. 

Ability  at  Supply-and-Demand  Prices. 

Imaginary  Ability. 

The  Ability  that  gives  Value  for  Money. 

Waste  of  Ability  and  Inflation  of  its  Price  by  the 

Idle  Rich. 
Artificial  Rent  of  Ability. 
Artificial  Ability. 

How  Little  Really  Goes  to  Ability. 
Socialism  the  Paradise  of  the  Able. 
The  Highest  Work  also  the  Cheapest. 
The  Economics  of  Fine  Art. 
Profits  and  Earnings  versus  Rent  and  Interest. 
Government  of  the  Many  by  the  Few. 
The  Incentive  to  Production. 


THE   MARTYRDOM   OF   MAN 

BY 

WINWOOD   READE 

Cloth.     12mo.     $1.50  net.     Postage  15  cents 

A   Biographical  Sketch  of  the  Author  and  an  Estimate  of  his 
JVork.     Also  Portrait  Frontispiece 

Some  of  the  Topics: 

Egypt — Western  Asia — The  Greeks — The  Macedonians — 
The  Natural  History  of  Religion — The  Israelites — The  Jews 
— The  Character  of  Jesus — The  Character  of  Mahomet — 
Ancient  Europe — The  Slave  Trade — Abolition  in  Europe — 
Abolition  in  America — Animal  Period  of  the  Earth — The  Fu- 
ture of  the  Human  Race — The  Religion  of  Reason  and  Love. 


SOCIALISM  AND    SUCCESS 

Some  Uninvited  Messages 

BY 

W.  J.  GHENT 

$1. 00  net.     Postage  15  cents 
Socialism  and  Success"  bears  a  pertinent  message  **To 


C( 


the  Seekers  of  Success/'  *'To  the  Reformers,"  *'To  the 
Retainers,"  "To  Some  Socialists,"  *'To  Mr.  John  Smith, 
Workingman,"  and  "To  the  Sceptics  and  Doubters." 
Every  reader  will  find  food  for  thought  in  its  keen  analysis 
of  motives,  its  fearless  criticism,  and  its  pointed  suggestion. 
Although  a  socialist,  Mr.  Ghent  is  not  blind  to  the  faults  and 
weaknesses  of  the  socialist  movement,  and  he  states  them 
frankly. 

This  is  a  book  that  will  cause  controversy,  a  book  that 
hits  hard  at  human  foibles,  a  book  that  will  win  high  praise 
and  severe  censure.  No  socialist  or  non-socialist  can  afford 
to  miss  the  live  argument  and  pithy  suggestion  contained  in 
its  pages. 


it 
ti 


GILBERT  K.  CHESTERTON 

Always  entertaining.  " — Ne<u;  York  E'vening  Sun. 
Always  original.  ^''—Chicago  Tribune. 


Heretics  12mo.     $1.50  net.     Postage  12  cents 

"His  thinking  is  as  sane  as  his  language  is  brilliant.** 

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Orthodoxy.     Uniform  with  "  Heretics.'' 

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A  work  of  genius.** — Chicago  E<vening  Post. 


ti 


All  Things  Considered 

C/ot/i.     12mo.     $1.50  net.     Postage  12  cents 

**  Full  of  the  author's  abundant  vitality,  wit  and  unflinching  opti- 
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George  Bernard  Shaw.     A  Biography 

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"It  is  a  facinating  portrait  study  and  I  am  proud  to  have  been  the 
painter's  model." — George  Bernard  Shaw  in  The  Nation  (London). 

The  Napoleon  of  Notting  Hill.     A  Romance.     With 
Illustrations  by  Graham  Robertson 

Cloth.     12mo.      $1.50 

"A  brilliant  piece  of  satire,  gemmed  with  ingenious  paradox. 
Every  page  is  pregnant  with  vitality.** — Boston  Herald. 

The  Ball  and  the  Cross  Cloth.    12mo.    $1.50 

*  *  The  most  strikingly  original  novel  of  the  present  season.  It  is 
studded  with  intellectual  brilliants.  Its  satire  is  keener  than  that  of 
Bernard  Shaw.  Behind  all  this  foolery  there  shines  the  light  of 
Truth.  A  brilliant  piece  of  satire — a  gem  that  sparkles  from  any 
point  of  view  the  reader  may  choose  to  regard  it. ' ' 

— San  Francisco  Bulletin, 

■BHBHK^I^HaKHHI^UHHHHi 


THE    FOUNDATIONS 
OF  THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY 

BY 

HOUSTON  STEWART  CHAMBERLAIN 

A  translation  from  the  German  by  John  Lees.     IVith  an  introduction 

by  Lord  Redesdale. 

Cloth.     8njo.     2 'vols.     $10.00  net.     Postage  50  cents 

*^*  This  is  beyond  question  one  of  the  most  stimulating 
and  important  books  written  during  the  last  twenty  years.  Its 
phenomenal  success  in  the  German  original — it  has  gone 
through  eight  large  editions  in  ten  years — is  a  strong  testi- 
monial to  its  merits. 

%*  With  the  brilliant  comprehensiveness  of  an  artistic 
mind,  Mr.  Chamberlain  shows  us  what  we  owe  to  Hellenic 
Art  and  Philosophy,  to  Roman  Law  and  to  the  Advent  of 
Christ  J  this  is  followed  by  a  striking  picture  of  the  Chaos  of 
Peoples  in  the  dying  Roman  Empire  and  the  Entry  of  the 
Jews  into  the  Western  History.  Mr.  Chamberlain  then  pro- 
ceeds in  an  interesting  chapter,  entitled  Religion,  to  reveal  the 
historical  growth,  and  to  estimate  the  importance,  of  our 
Christian  beliefs. 


♦ 


^:^*  The  second  part  of  the  book  is  devoted  to  the  period 
1200  to  1800  and  bears  the  title  "The  Rise  of  a  New 
World.'*  In  seven  sections — Discovery,  Science,  Industry, 
f^conomics.  Politics  and  Church,  Philosophy  and  Religion, 
Art — he  discusses  the  great  movements,  ideas  and  creations 
that  have  exercised  an  influence  upon  the  age  in  which  we 
live.  He  has  something  new  to  say  on  such  subjects  as  the 
Renaissance,  the  meaning  of  religion,  evolution,  the  question 
of  race,  importance  of  nations,  and  the  role  played  by  the 
Teutonic  peoples  in  the  history  of  the  world. 


the 

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BL1451.H74 

The  creed  of  Buddha, 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  00009  7628 


